US Capitol Capsule: Ebola crisis spurs vows to boost global health security

With West Africa's hospitals and treatment centers overwhelmed and its health systems near collapse – leaving people to die in the streets – the Ebola outbreak has spotlighted not only the need to ensure global capacity and systems are in place to better prevent, detect and rapidly respond to biological threats before they become out-of-control epidemics, but to make sure those capabilities are enduring, leaders from 44 countries declared during a 26 September meeting at the White House.

Too often, the world has scrambled to coordinate a response to a disease outbreak, whether it has been the 2002-03...