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Source: http://www.citylab.com/politics/2014...-ebola/378605/
Lessons From NYC's TB Outbreak Could Help Manage Ebola
30 years ago, tuberculosis ripped through New York City's low-income neighborhoods. The experience could translate to Lagos, Nigeria, as it struggles to battle Ebola.
Sam Sturgis
@sampsturgis
4:17 PM ET
?It does look like a gargantuan powder keg for infectious disease."
That?s how one health official describes the situation in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa?s largest city, where new infections of the Ebola virus have recently been detected. ?[Lagos] is massive?21 million people with a massive population density,? says Dr. J. Stephen Morrison from the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Nigeria?s coastal metropolis has a much different geography from the rural settings in which past Ebola crises have played out. Never before has a megacity like Lagos played host to the virus. Keeping potentially infected individuals isolated and under surveillance?vital during an outbreak?is nearly impossible. It?s feared that living conditions in crowded areas without the benefit of reliable sanitation could help spread the disease at rapid pace (click here for an interactive map that shows how Ebola has spread).
A similar situation once unfolded in a U.S. metropolis?New York City. And that the lessons we learned from reining in that epidemic could offer some guidance for Lagos...
Lessons From NYC's TB Outbreak Could Help Manage Ebola
30 years ago, tuberculosis ripped through New York City's low-income neighborhoods. The experience could translate to Lagos, Nigeria, as it struggles to battle Ebola.
Sam Sturgis
@sampsturgis
4:17 PM ET
?It does look like a gargantuan powder keg for infectious disease."
That?s how one health official describes the situation in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa?s largest city, where new infections of the Ebola virus have recently been detected. ?[Lagos] is massive?21 million people with a massive population density,? says Dr. J. Stephen Morrison from the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Nigeria?s coastal metropolis has a much different geography from the rural settings in which past Ebola crises have played out. Never before has a megacity like Lagos played host to the virus. Keeping potentially infected individuals isolated and under surveillance?vital during an outbreak?is nearly impossible. It?s feared that living conditions in crowded areas without the benefit of reliable sanitation could help spread the disease at rapid pace (click here for an interactive map that shows how Ebola has spread).
A similar situation once unfolded in a U.S. metropolis?New York City. And that the lessons we learned from reining in that epidemic could offer some guidance for Lagos...