Out of Africa, Into Global Health Security Agenda

February 2014 witnessed the start of two remarkable public health events on Earth: The Ebola outbreak and the launch of Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). Since the first case of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was confirmed, the total number of suspected and confirmed cases in the Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) outbreak has increased to 13,268, including 8168 laboratory-confirmed cases and 4960 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Spain, and the United States (data as of November 4, 2014) [1]. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa stresses the necessity for immediate action to establish global health security capacity to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to biological threats like Ebola. The GHSA was launched on February 13, 2014, to secure the world from infectious disease threats and unite nations to make new, concrete commitments, and to elevate global health security as a national leaders-level priority [2].The G7 endorsed the GHSA in June 2014, and Finland and Indonesia hosted commitment development meetings in May 2014 and August 2014. Ministers and senior officials from 44 countries and leading international organizations gathered in the White House, Washington DC to make specific commitments to implement the GHSA and to work toward a commitment to assist West Africa with the needed global health security capacity within 3 years. The countries developed 11 action packages to support the GHSA. The action packages are designed to outline measurable steps required to prevent outbreaks, detect threats in real time, and rapidly respond to infectious disease threats that may occur naturally, as a result of laboratory accidents, or as an act of bioterrorism. The action packages include specific targets and indicators that can be used as a basis to measure how national, regional, and global capacities are developed and maintained over the long term. The United States