Special Issue: Ebola hemorrhagic fever
Non-biomedical factors in the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa
2015 Volume 65 Issue 1 Pages 83-88
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2015 Volume 65 Issue 1 Pages 83-88
The outbreak of Ebola virus disease, reported in West Africa in 2014, has become the largest ever one in the history. Tremendous efforts by all the parties concerned are now bringing this epidemic closer to the end, while observing a large number of cases and deaths, including health care workers.
This paper features five questions:
1. Why did it emerge in West Africa?
2. Why has it spread so wide and intensely?
3. Why were so many health care workers infected?
4. Why is it being brought under control?
5. Would it emerge and spread in Japan in the same way?
Ebola virus transmits through human acts such as caregiving of the sick and attending a funeral, therefore an epidemic is not likely to subside naturally, but intentional interventions are needed to terminate its transmission. Who the outbreak response is meant for, either patients, the general public in the affected countries, or international communities, also determines its success or failure.
