Chapter 17: Searching for Solutions Summary and Analysis

During the civil war in Rwanda, HIV spread rapidly among the refugees, as they were forced into crowded refugee tents. Five years earlier, a disease preparedness meeting involving 800 of the top disease specialists had shown the potential for such an outbreak among refugees. A scenario played out showed a total lack of supplies, knowledge, and readiness across the globe. In 1989, the spread of a thankfully harmless virus from monkeys in the Philippines across the globe showed the dangerous potential, and the unpreparedness of the health care system. Within one week, hundreds across four continents were infected. The disease outbreak did cause a change in animal handling legislation to avoid a real transmission of disease. Scientists and researchers also began looking for a large scale monitoring and surveillance system to catch outbreaks before they became endemics...