Ready: Global readiness for response to major disease outbreak

Infectious disease emergencies, also known as public health emergencies of international concern, have disastrous impacts on families, societies, systems, and economies. The impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa stretched well beyond the estimated 11,310 lives lost or the 28,616 known to have contracted the disease. Many health workers were lost and health systems were unable to cope – severely restricting access to routine and life-saving health services. Millions of children lost months of schooling–many never returned, thousands of children lost parents, siblings, and family members, and disruptions to markets and livelihoods had dire consequences for the poorest communities.

READY brings together the best parts of what works across the consortium’s operational, academic, clinical, and communications organizations to ensure the right people are in the right place, at the right time, with the appropriate skills, equipment, knowledge, funds, and coordinated ways of working.