Experts at Global Health Symposium Say Ebola Will Not be a Problem in United States

The Ebola pandemic was the focus of a Global Health Symposium held in San Francisco on Thursday.

Experts who attended the event discussed how to response to the spread of the disease in the United States and in the countries where it is spreading.

"It's a terrible disease, but it doesn't spread like wildfire," said Larry Brilliant, one of the many top infectious disease experts at the symposium.

Brilliant is an epidemiologist who helped eradicate small pox. He was joined by the likes of Paul Farmer, who transformed health clinics in some of the poorest countries in the world, and Dan Kelly, a UCSF epidemiologist who flew into Sierra Leon when other doctors and nurses were fleeing.

"We need to be open to the idea that there may be scattered cases that we'll see over the course of the epidemic," Kelly said. "But really our attention needs to be turned to West Africa. And there should be a call to action so that we rebuild that health system better and stronger."

All experts in attendance agreed that more attention to the outbreak earlier on would have made a big difference. The first outbreak in West Africa was last March.

Officials said waiting six months to respond to an outbreak will eventually lead to dealing with an epidemic.

Experts at the symposium said they were not worried about Ebola spreading in the United States.

"Ebola is not going to be a problem in the United States under any circumstances," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, vice president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

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