Canada needs to step up its game when responding to international disease outbreaks, says New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, who spent more than six months in Africa with the World Health Organization during the Ebola outbreak. Dr. Eilish Cleary was disappointed that the Public Health Agency of Canada was not able to deploy teams of public health experts to help with the response.
“When I was there, especially in the beginning, there were a lot of people from other countries — Americans, a lot of Europeans particularly, but there were not that many Canadians. Some Canadian doctors had gone independently, but there was no organized group,” she says. “I think the value for money is better if you send teams.” Read more in CMAJ.