Global Health News

Date: Tues. March 22, 2016 @ 12 pm
Location: CH&E classroom 409

Ebola in West Africa: Lessons Learned from the 2014-15 Outbreak

The 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the largest outbreak to date, taking more than 11,000 lives and leaving thousands others with personal losses and long term health sequelae. It weakened already fragile economies and devastated health care systems that barely functioned before the outbreak. At the same time, it reminded us how important robust surveillance systems, basic medical infrastructure, and understanding cultural norms are in rapidly identifying and containing epidemics.  This presentation will discuss the epidemiology of Ebola in Sierra Leone, factors that contributed to its spread, and the role that epidemiologists played in its control.

Dr. Johnston completed her MD at Dalhousie University and MSc (Epidemiology) at the University of Toronto. Post-MD training included residencies in internal medicine (Dalhousie University), infectious disease (University of California, Los Angeles), and hospital epidemiology (University of Virginia). She is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases. From March 2015-June 2015 she worked as a consultant in infection prevention and control for the World Health Organization, deployed in Sierra Leone.

For more information contact cheadmin@dal.ca or 494-3860