The article mentions: you defeat Ebola by meeting it where it is now, not where it was. You can only beat it by stopping the spread of the infection, so it's very critical to move with speed and accuracy. Dashboards and reporting aren't very glamorous, I know, but we're really dealing with the flow of information to stop the spread of infection.

Intelligence is the ability to predict, and we need information to do it. It wasn't directly said in the article, but the information allows you to see patterns and predict spread, and meet it 'now'.

As in, imagine the moment in time where you predict Ebola will be, and then take every measure to have an advantage over it. The reports and dashboards help you to imagine, predict that future 'now' moment.

Because public health is about protecting everyone. You sound like you don't really care about the philosophical altruistic view, but the cynical reasoning works just as well here: if you can contain it in-situ, in Africa, it stops it spreading to the countries paying for the aid. Instead of gratitude from the direct recipients for how your taxes are being spent, you can instead bask in the warm glow of not catching ebola yourself.