Global health security as it pertains to Zika, Ebola, and COVID-19

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic this past year, we have witnessed a significant acceleration in the science, technology, and policy of global health security. This review highlights important progress made toward the mitigation of Zika, Ebola, and COVID-19 outbreaks. These epidemics and their shared features suggest a unified policy and technology agenda that could broadly improve global health security.

Molecular epidemiology is not yet in widespread use, but shows promise toward informing on-the-ground decision-making during outbreaks. Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics have been achieved for each of these threats; however, deployment of Zika and Ebola diagnostics lags behind those for COVID-19. POC metagenomics offers the possibility of identifying novel viruses. Vaccines have been successfully approved for Ebola and COVID-19, due in large part to public-private partnerships and advance purchase commitments. Therapeutics trials conducted during ongoing epidemics have identified effective antibody therapeutics for Ebola, as well as steroids (both inhaled and oral) and a broad-spectrum antiviral for COVID-19.

Achieving global health security remains a challenge, though headway has been made over the past years. Promising policy and technology strategies that would increase resilience across emerging viral pathogens should be pursued.