An Epidemic Recovery Framework to Jump-start Analysis, Planning, and Action on a Neglected Aspect of Global Health Security

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases Vol. 71; no. 9; pp. 2516 - 2520
• Main Author: Schoch-Spana, Monica
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 03.12.2020
• Subjects: Communicable Diseases - epidemiology; Disaster Planning; Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control; Epidemics; Global Health; Humans; Viewpoints; global health; recovery; epidemic; health security; disasters
• ISSN: 1058-4838; 1537-6591
• DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa486

Abstract Epidemic readiness and response command the disproportionate attention of health security decision makers, planners, and practitioners, overshadowing recovery. How patients and their families, health organizations, community sectors, and entire societies recuperate from major outbreaks requires more systematic study and better translation into policy and guidance. To help remedy this neglected aspect of health emergency management, we offer a working definition for epidemic recovery and a preliminary model of postepidemic recovery. Guiding this framework’s development are insights gleaned from the more mature study of postdisaster reconstruction and rehabilitation as well as recognition that postoutbreak recovery—which involves infectious disease, a biological hazard—presents challenges and opportunities distinct from events involving geological or meteorological hazards. Future work includes developing a consensus around characteristics of successful epidemic recovery, applying these metrics to support preincident planning for postepidemic recovery, and using such a scheme to track and inform actual recovery from an epidemic. Overshadowed by the immediate response to an epidemic, community recovery postcrisis requires more systematic study, a holistic conceptual framework, and better translation into policy, guidance, and action.