Ebola Virus Disease Prevention - a Problem Solving Strategy Based on Sars Case Study from Taiwan

In the first half of the year 2003, the whole world was seriously panicked by SARS, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes. Taiwan was also heavily stricken. While the public in Taiwan was run over by the fear of this unprecedented disaster, the key factors contributing to the ineffective control of the epidemic was identified to be a series of fault decisions made by the panic-stricken official. Nowadays, based on the report of WHO Ebola Response Roadmap Update, a total of 8399 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in seven affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the United States of America) up to the end of 8 October. There have been 4033 deaths. In order to provide a problem solving strategy for well managing this potential crisis by government, this study tries to use the concept of Case Based Reasoning (CBR) to apply a case study of SARS epidemic. One important question is often asked: what would have happened if the disease control officer had competent problem solving skills and had timely reacted in line with this epidemic development? It is our task to simulate the problem solving process in the SARS war by deploying the Theory of Constraints (TOC) Problem Solving Model. We also discuss and demonstrate some of findings about TOC application in problem solving.