{"id":852801,"date":"2026-09-19T03:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T03:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852801\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T03:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T03:06:08","slug":"scientists-warn-of-weakening-health-systems-and-urge-stronger-outbreak-detection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852801\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists warn of weakening health systems and urge stronger outbreak detection"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOME, Togo — LOME, Togo (AP) \u2014 West African<\/a> laboratory scientists called on governments Friday to strengthen capacity to detect disease outbreaks to avoid another major outbreak, saying health systems across the region are becoming weaker.<\/p>\n

The scientists issued their warning in Togo’s<\/a> capital, Lome, where they have gathered this week to discuss the region’s level of preparation for disease outbreaks and dependence on vaccines from Western countries. <\/p>\n

They said governments in the region have to cooperate to strengthen disease detection and invest in diagnostic capacities, citing lessons from Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks that the region has grappled with in the past decade.<\/p>\n

Between 2014 and 2016, an Ebola outbreak killed at least 11,000 people across West Africa<\/a>, overwhelmingly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to anticipate these outbreaks,\u201d said Kossi Kabo, the head of the Association of Medical Biologists of Togo and a co-chair of the congress. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t wait for an epidemic to emerge somewhere before responding. By then, it would be too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Africa as a whole remains at risk for outbreaks. The rare Bundibugyo virus<\/a> has killed over 3,600 people among nearly 7,500 cases in Congo since mid-May, when Congolese authorities announced a fresh deadly Ebola outbreak. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the tolls are likely three times the official figures<\/a> and the outbreak is already history’s fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak. The virus spread without detection for several weeks. Also, Hantavirus<\/a> was detected on a cruise ship that docked in the Atlantic off Cape Verde in May.<\/p>\n

Scientists are worried that in the absence of a major outbreak threatening the region, maintenance of the health systems has waned, leaving them unprepared for potential future epidemics.<\/p>\n

Arthur Bodurie Calvin Garber, president of the Sierra Leone Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, said the governments must also invest in people as much as infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOME, Togo — LOME, Togo (AP) \u2014 West African laboratory scientists called on governments Friday to strengthen capacity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6883,10698,66508,90738,793,97,6882,243,965],"class_list":["post-852801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-coronavirus","tag-disease-outbreaks","tag-ebola-virus","tag-epidemics","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-immunizations","tag-medication","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}