90-Second Read: Ebola, Hantavirus and the warning America should not ignore | Opinion

The current Ebola and Hantavirus outbreaks are not the same kind of emergency. Together, however, they reinforce the same warning: epidemic prevention depends on layers of protection, and weakening these layers puts Americans, including Mainers, at greater risk. Both the Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks have required countries to identify exposed people, coordinate surveillance and response and align public health guidance. Although we may live in a small state far from the current outbreaks, we remain connected to the world through travel, commerce and migration.

In a recent two-year period, American engagement helped contain more than 250 outbreaks, including cholera, Marburg and measles, across more than 40 countries. Countries can control outbreaks earlier, and Americans are safer when dangerous pathogens are stopped before they cross borders. American leadership in international cooperation is central to this task too. Before the current administration began systematically weakening the country's epidemic prevention system, this system protected Americans repeatedly, often invisibly.

The two viruses spread differently, require different responses and pose different risks to Americans today. Clinicians care for patients and keep health facilities from amplifying spread. Politics portrays these as separate fights over sovereignty, foreign assistance and public health. Containing Ebola quickly requires strong surveillance to detect illness, laboratories to confirm infection and ready-to-act response teams.

When this support becomes unstable, however, these systems lose the continuity they need to function optimally, and Americans lose part of the protection they provide. Without American leadership in these rooms, decisions that affect American safety are made without American influence. This was the result of a long-standing commitment to global health security, built on reliable funding, technical partnerships and international cooperation.