Combating infectious diseases is a
matter of life and death—so
experienced project managers
need to be on the front lines.
he deadliest Ebola virus
outbreak in history began
in December 2013, when
a 2-year-old boy in the village of Meliandou, Guinea became fatally ill after
contact with a fruit bat. By December 2014 Ebola
had spread via land to other West African nations,
as well as via air to the United States and a few
European countries.
Scrambling to respond to the outbreak, governments and aid organizations quickly launched
containment and treatment projects. But as of late
December, more than 7,500 people had died from
Ebola—more than a third of all the confirmed cases.
The sudden public health
crisis was a grim reminder
to the global health community of the downside of
an increasingly connected
world: easy avenues for
deadly pathogens to move
across continents and
oceans. “In the public health
sector, the new challenge is
figuring out how to improve
cross-border collaboration
in order to reduce the risk
of disease,” says Francis
Kasolo, PhD, director of disease prevention and control,
Africa regional office, World
Health Organization, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
The answer is evident
as organizations work to
stop Ebola’s spread, Dr.
Kasolo says: better project
management. “If your proj-
ect management is poor, it doesn’t matter how
many resources you invest or how many people you
employ. You will not succeed.”
As economies grow increasingly interconnected,
countries urbanize and cross-border movement
accelerates, the stakes are high—and growing. Ebola
is just one of many persistent threats around the
globe. Middle East respiratory system (MERS),
tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, measles,
meningitis, avian flu and even polio remain virulent,
emphasizing the need for skilled practitioners in the
public health sector. With global health funding in
If your project
management
is poor, it
doesn’t matter
how many
resources you
invest or how
many people
you employ.
You will not
succeed.”
—Francis Kasolo, PhD,
World Health Organization,
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
BY MATT ALDERTON
Mission