A large majority of Americans in a new poll believe that another serious Ebola outbreak will crop up in Africa in the next five years, but the U.S. will be ready.
A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation released Wednesday found that 83 percent of Americans believe it is very likely or somewhat likely a new outbreak will crop up. The findings come about a week after the World Health Organization declared the West African Ebola outbreak over.
The outbreak, which started in 2014, killed more than 11,000 people primarily in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Even though the WHO declared the outbreak over, there are still chances of flare-ups, as Sierra Leone just reported a new Ebola case.
A similar percentage, 86 percent, believe that it is likely an outbreak of a different disease just as serious as Ebola will occur in the next five years in Africa.
About 66 percent of poll respondents believe the U.S. government is very well prepared or somewhat prepared to handle another major disease outbreak.
Meanwhile, respondents were more divided on whether the U.S. is doing enough to improve global health.
About 53 percent say the U.S. government is already doing enough to improve health for people in developing countries, and 46 percent believe the U.S. is doing more than its fair share, Kaiser said.
The survey was of 1,202 adults at the beginning of December.
