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Review

A Historical Review of Liberia’s Public Health Evolution—Past, Present & Future

by
Udhayashankar Kanagasabai
1,* and
James B. Ballah
2
1
John F. Kennedy Medical Center, Monrovia 1000, Liberia
2
Independent Researcher, Moorhead, MN 56560, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Hygiene 2022, 2(4), 251-266; https://doi.org/10.3390/hygiene2040023
Submission received: 28 October 2022 / Revised: 29 November 2022 / Accepted: 7 December 2022 / Published: 15 December 2022
(This article belongs to the Section Public Health and Preventive Medicine)

Abstract

Over the past two centuries since its independence in 1847, Liberia has made significant progress in building an integrated public health system designed to serve its population. Despite a prolonged period of civil conflict (1990–2003) and the emergence of the 2014–2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) that crippled its already weakened health system, Liberia was able to re-emerge, making significant strides and gains in rebuilding and strengthening its health infrastructure and systems. Lessons learnt from the EVD epidemic have led to developments such as the newly established National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) and several tertiary public health institutions to meet the growing demands of a skilled workforce equipped to combat existing and emerging health problems and/crisis, including informing the more recent COVID-19 response. This article delineated and documented the historical efforts made towards establishing public health interventions such as infrastructures and systems of the past, and how these structures and systems became the foundation and pillars of the current resilient health system. This paper highlighted some of the key crises and interventions deployed, and some of the historical public health champions, laws, and policies that aided in strengthening the public health systems then and now. It is expected that in addition this paper can be used as a guide for further or future research.
Keywords: Liberia; public health; Ebola virus disease; low-income country Liberia; public health; Ebola virus disease; low-income country

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Kanagasabai, U.; Ballah, J.B. A Historical Review of Liberia’s Public Health Evolution—Past, Present & Future. Hygiene 2022, 2, 251-266. https://doi.org/10.3390/hygiene2040023

AMA Style

Kanagasabai U, Ballah JB. A Historical Review of Liberia’s Public Health Evolution—Past, Present & Future. Hygiene. 2022; 2(4):251-266. https://doi.org/10.3390/hygiene2040023

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kanagasabai, Udhayashankar, and James B. Ballah. 2022. "A Historical Review of Liberia’s Public Health Evolution—Past, Present & Future" Hygiene 2, no. 4: 251-266. https://doi.org/10.3390/hygiene2040023

APA Style

Kanagasabai, U., & Ballah, J. B. (2022). A Historical Review of Liberia’s Public Health Evolution—Past, Present & Future. Hygiene, 2(4), 251-266. https://doi.org/10.3390/hygiene2040023

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