Ebola viral disease in West Africa: a threat to global health, economy and political stability

Abstract

The West African sub-continent is currently experiencing its first, and ironically, the largest and longest Ebola viral diseases (EVD) outbreak ever documented in modern medical history. The current outbreak is significant in several ways, including longevity, magnitude of morbidity and mortality, occurrence outside the traditional niches, rapid spread and potential of becoming a global health tragedy. The authors provided explicit insights into the current and historical background, drivers of the epidemic, societal impacts, status of vaccines and drugs development and proffered recommendations to halt and prevent future occurrences. The authors reviewed mainly five databases and a hand search of key relevant literature. We reviewed 51 articles that were relevant up until the 18th of August 2014. The authors supplemented the search with reference list of relevant articles and grey literature as well as relevant Internet websites. Article searches were limited to those published either in English or French. There are strong indications that the EVD may have been triggered by increased human activities and encroachment into the forest ecosystem spurred by increasing population and poverty-driven forest-dependent local economy. Containment efforts are being hampered by weak and fragile health systems, including public health surveillance and weak governance, certain socio-anthropological factors, fast travels (improved transport systems) and globalization. The societal impacts of the EBV outbreak are grave, including economic shutdown, weakening of socio-political systems, psychological distress, and unprecedented consumption of scarce health resources. The research and development (R&D) pipeline for product against EBV seems grossly insufficient. The outbreak of Ebola and the seeming difficulty to contain the epidemic is simply a reflection of the weak health system, poor surveillance and emergency preparedness/response, poverty and disconnect between the government and the people in many West African countries. Although interventions by the United Nations and other international development agencies could ultimately halt the epidemic, local communities must be engaged to build trust and create demand for the public health interventions being implemented in the Ebola-ravaged populations. In the intermediate and long term, post-Ebola rehabilitation should focus on strengthening of health systems, improving awareness about zoonosis and health behaviors, alleviating poverty and mitigating the impact of triggering factors. Finally, national governments and international development partners should mobilize huge resources and investments to spur or facilitate R&D of disease control tools for emerging and pernicious infectious diseases (not limited to EVD).

Is Africa prepared for tackling the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic. Lessons from past outbreaks, ongoing pan-African public health efforts, and implications for the future

“…Repeated outbreaks of other preventable emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases with epidemic potential have taken their toll on the health systems of many African countries. The devastating -2016Ebola Virus Epidemic (WHO 2020b in West Africa, demonstrated how ill-prepared the affected countries were to rapidly identify the infection and halt transmission (WHO 2020d;Largent EA et al, 2016;Hoffman SJ et al, 2018;Omoleke SA et al, 2016). Similarly, the smoldering remnants of the 2018-19 Ebola Virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, have demonstrated even for health services with considerable experience of dealing with a certain emerging pathogen, geography and sociopolitical instability, can hamper the response (Aruna et al 2019).…”

“…The answer to the question is, is better prepared than ever before. Substantial progress has been made since the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak (WHO 2020d), with lessons learned from previous and ongoing outbreaks, followed by significant investments into surveillance and preparedness (WHO 2020d;Largent EA et al, 2016;Hoffman SJ et al, 2018;Omoleke SA et al, 2016). Africa is now better prepared than ever before.…”

Integration across a metacoupled world

“…For example, deforestation in the Amazon generates global impacts by emitting CO 2 (Pütz et al 2014). The Ebola outbreak originating in West Africa profoundly affected people and the environment in these countries and sent shock waves to neighboring nations and many distant countries around the world (Omoleke et al 2016). Brazil has exported millions of tons of soybeans to China and other countries (Sun et al 2015), leading to a wide range of socioeconomic and environmental impacts in these countries and beyond.…”

Sýn Íslendinga á utanríkis- og öryggismál

“…Þaer megi ekki líta á sem fastmótað fyrirbaeri því það yfirskyggi mikilvaega þaetti í mótun ógna (Sjöstedt 2013). Þannig voru vörubílar ekki ógn við öryggi fyrr en eftir að slíku taeki var beitt til að keyra niður almenna borgara á göngugötu í Nice (BBC News 2016) og svartir líkamar voru gerðir ógnvekjandi á Vesturlöndum þegar ebólufaraldurinn í Vestur-Afríku stóð sem haest árið 2014 (Giorgis 2014;Omoleke, Mohammed & Saidu 2016). Þá má nefna að kjúklingur og annað fiðurfé var öryggisvaett í kringum fuglaflensufaraldra (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017).…”