Medical diplomacy is the kind of foreign policy tool that the world’s most powerful nation should embrace. [...] Nations such as the United States that have the financial and logistical ability to respond to these epidemics should accept their moral responsibility to do so. In the case of the United States, “America first” does not mean “America only.” Spending a tiny fraction of this country’s wealth to save lives should be done without a second thought.

Another key component of IOM’s intervention will be community mobilization activities aiming at empowering community leaders to raise awareness and increase their communities’ knowledge on the causes, symptoms and modes of prevention of EVD in order to positively influence their communities and promote behaviour change.

West Africa’s medical system was brought within an inch of its life by a devastating epidemic. But Cuba could nurse it back to health.What follows is a modest proposal. It endeavors to solve three crucial problems all at once: U.S.-Cuba relations; the post-Ebola human resources deficits in physicians for Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia; and the scarcity of skilled nurses in those same countries.

Aid spending by the world’s richest states hovered around an all-time high last year, but development assistance to the least-developed countries (LDCs) fell by 16% from the year before, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said.

Sierra Leone poured a lot of money into the battle against Ebola. The government earmarked $18 million of treasury funds and public donations to combat the disease, which has claimed around 3,800 lives there. That's an admirable commitment. But there's just one problem. A third of that money appears to have disappeared.

SUPERVISING Minister of Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan, has urged the European Union (EU) to support medical diplomacy in Africa with concrete long term solutions to boost health delivery in the continent.