Ebola
Subtitle: how a people's science helped end an epidemic
By: Paul Richards
Series: African arguments; African arguments
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9781783608591; 9781783608584
Subjects: International cooperation; Humanitarian assistance; Prevention; Ebola virus disease
Description: In 2013, the largest Ebola outbreak in history swept across West Africa, claiming thousands of lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and sending the international community into panic. By 2014, experts were grimly predicting that millions would be infected within months, and a huge international control effort was mounted to contain the virus. Yet paradoxically, at this point the disease was already going into decline in Africa itself. Why did outside observers get it so wrong? Paul Richards draws on his extensive firsthand experience in Sierra Leone to argue that the international community's alarmed response failed to take account of local expertise and common sense. Crucially, Richards shows that the humanitarian response to the disease was most effective in those areas where it supported community initiatives already in place, such as giving local people agency in terms of disposing of bodies. In turn, the international response dangerously hampered recovery when it ignored or disregarded local knowledge.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 160-173) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The world's first Ebola epidemic; title: The epidemic's rise and decline; title: Washing the dead: does culture spread Ebola?; title: Ebola in rural Sierra Leone: a technography; title: Burial technique; title: Community responses to Ebola; title: Conclusion: strengthening an African people's science; title: Postscript; title: Appendices: evidence and testimony from Ebola-affected community members.