--- title: ‘We Are Not Prepared For Another Epidemic’: World Bank Survey description: A new World Bank poll reveals many countries are fearful of epidemics like Ebola and do not think the world is prepared to handle them canonical: https://time.com/3967662/world-bank-ebola-epidemics/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-23T04:01:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:27.516Z article:section: Health og:title: ‘We Are Not Prepared For Another Epidemic’: World Bank Survey og:description: A new poll reveals many countries are fearful of epidemics og:url: https://time.com/3967662/world-bank-ebola-epidemics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97beb4e746af7af7/69885bf48e0601c47e4617f9/ebola-quarantine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3526 og:image:height: 1983 og:image:alt: LIBERIA-HEATH-EBOLA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ‘We Are Not Prepared For Another Epidemic’: World Bank Survey twitter:description: A new poll reveals many countries are fearful of epidemics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97beb4e746af7af7/69885bf48e0601c47e4617f9/ebola-quarantine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'We Are Not Prepared For Another Epidemic': World Bank Survey > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Watch One Man’s Story of Surviving Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Watch One Man’s Story of Surviving Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XfeUoCr9.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2014-10-03. Watch One Man’s Story of Surviving Ebola_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 23, 2015 4:01 AM UTC  A woman, suspected of carrying ebola, looks on while under quarantine in the red zone of the Elwa clinic, an ebola treatment center in Monrovia on July 20, 2015\. AFP PHOTO / ZOOM DOSSO (Photo credit should read ZOOM DOSSO/AFP/Getty Images) A woman, suspected of carrying ebola, looks on while under quarantine in the red zone of the Elwa clinic, an ebola treatment center in Monrovia on July 20, 2015\. AFP PHOTO / ZOOM DOSSO (Photo credit should read ZOOM DOSSO/AFP/Getty Images) Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 23, 2015 4:01 AM UTC **Correction appended, July 23** Many people living in developed countries do not think the world is prepared to appropriately respond to another infectious disease epidemic like the ongoing Ebola outbreak, a new World Bank survey shows. The new data comes from a World Bank Foundation survey released Thursday morning. Researchers polled 4,000 people in the general public living in the regions as well as what the organization classified as opinion elites (defined as people with a university diploma who closely follow global news) and discovered that people around the world are highly concerned about global disease outbreaks, are not convinced the global community is well equipped to handle such outbreaks, and are in support of more funding for protections. When asked to rank which global issues are most concerning, the people polled collectively ranked global health and epidemics third, after climate change and terrorism. Concern over epidemics was higher than that for global poverty and human rights abuses. When asked specifically about which global health problems concerned people most, global infectious diseases beat out other issues including HIV/AIDS, obesity and hunger. Not only is concern over epidemics high, but twice as many people think there will be another epidemic like Ebola than people who do not. In addition, a high proportion of the people surveyed expect there could be an epidemic in their own country. That’s especially interesting, the researchers pointed out in a press conference, given that most of the countries had very few people with Ebola if any at all. People living in the United States, France and the United Kingdom were especially unconvinced that the world is prepared to handle another outbreak. The Ebola outbreak has infected over 27,700 people and killed over 11,260\. It’s been widely acknowledged that the world did not react fast enough, and [a recent report](http://time.com/3947865/who-ebola-response/) cited major cultural problems at the World Health Organization (WHO) that interfered with the agency’s leadership during the outbreak and contributed to its failures to adequately respond. The poll highlights the fact that members of the general public recognize the risk epidemics pose and support investment to prevent them. Nearly 60% of those surveyed said they support funding and policy changes in developing countries that will help protect their own country from risk, and about 70% say strengthening the health systems in developing countries will save money. Pledges from countries to aid in the Ebola outbreak as well as vows from global agencies to reform their processes to better respond in the future have been made throughout the last year. Whether these translate to real changes and increased capacities to prevent and respond to the next outbreak remains to be seen, but it’s clear from the new poll that it’s what the people want. **Correction:** The original version of this story misstated group that conducted the poll. It’s the World Bank Group. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I saw decent people losing their life to Ebola. [ MUSIC ] I work overtime. I work in the day. I work in the night. People will call me. Me. I have to be there, I have to take them to the center and today because of that a lot of them have their life back. When I went in he was lying in a pool of vomit. I picked him up. he kept vomiting so maybe it through that, mistakenly it seeped through somewhere in my PPEs and. I didn't, I didn't really care because I did not want him to lost his life, so when I checked him for what was happening my only concern was to drive him to the center that he, he received treatment. Day after then, I fell sick [ MUSIC ] I don't regret anything. Even if I lose my life in the process, I don't regret it. It's what God wanted to happen. I'm gonna go back and do my job. I wanna help save a lot of lives. Our people are dying. Everybody can't see a way. Now that I have built an immunity to Ebola, I'm gonna go in with full swing. 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