The United States is tackling international public health all wrong

The Ebola crisis played a role in kickstarting longer-term US government investment in global health security, says Jessica Craig Craig .

Craig : The US government has doled out at least $8 billion to the CDC , USAID , and the Department of Defense in the past 10 years .

Craig says the U.S. government has approached health security with too much of a traditional national security approach, focusing more on keeping foreign threats of the US .

The Global Health Security Index assesses country capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases.

Of 195 countries included in the index, 126 did not have an overarching national public health emergency response plan, 128 have no plan for testing for novel pathogens.

Some 47 countries in Africa face severe shortages of health workers, and 4.5 billion people around the world do not have full access to health services.

Developing the health and public health systems required to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases is certainly a long game.

The US government needs to forge partnerships with foreign governments where ideas are exchanged back and forth and both parties jointly work toward building health security capacity.

US government should also require local buy-in and domestic investment from foreign governments.