What lessons learned can we use from Ebola outbreaks in Western Africa 2014 and Democratic Republic of Congo 2018-19 to improve international response?

The 2014 Western African Ebola outbreak challenged the global disaster response system. Various nations, organisations and non-governmental actors supported the response either by sending resources to the region and/or taking an internal focus and preparing to respond to cases potentially appearing in their region. In ether case, these actors responded by implementing protocols based on limited experience. This paper draws on the United Nations response structure and the disaster management cycle to identify the lessons learned from the 2014 outbreak and the more recent cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and discusses how these are applicable to a future public health emergency of international concern.