internet: Cultural effects of the Western African Ebola virus epidemic

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa has had a large effect on the culture of most of the West African countries. In most instances, the effect is a rather negative one as it has disrupted many Africans’ traditional norms and practices. For instance, many West African communities rely on traditional healers and witch doctors, who use herbal remedies, massage, chant and witchcraft to cure just about any ailment. Therefore, it is difficult for West Africans to adapt to foreign medical practices. Specifically, West African resistance to Western medicine is prominent in the region, which calls for severe distrust of Western and modern medical personnel and practices.(see Ebola conspiracies b…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 92

Community perspectives of Ebola Viral Disease in high-risk transmission border regions of Tanzania: a qualitative inquiry.. Background Tanzania faces ever-rising concerns due to the recurrence of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. This necessitates a better understanding of the community perspectives in high-risk regions for effective risk communication and preparedness. Methods This rapid ethnographic assessment study used explorative qualitative methods to collect data. People from diverse backgrounds participated in 59 in-depth interviews, 57 Key Informant interviews, and 35 focus group discussions. Data was analysed using a thema…

Evidence: 39 • authority: 88

Prediction of the Ebola Virus Epidemic using Data-Driven Modeling: A Focus on the historical Western African Ebola Virus Epidemic. Abstract Ebola virus disease is among the deadliest diseases in human history and numerous measures have been established to contain it. However, in the absence of a vaccine to combat the disease, the established measures may not serve their utmost purpose. The reliance on data-driven modeling offers hope toward combating this deadly zoonotic viral disease through early detection. Decision trees, gradient boosting, random forests, and deep neural network were used as machine learning algorithms to forecast the next Ebola cases and deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and…

Evidence: 39 • authority: 72

The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies. The history of medicine is the study and documentation of the evolution of medical treatments, practices, and knowledge over time. Medical historians often draw from other humanities fields of study including economics, health sciences, sociology, and politics to better understand the institutions, practices, people, professions, and social systems that have shaped medicine. When a period which predates or lacks written sources regarding medicine, information is instead…

Evidence: 39 • authority: 72

The Kivu Ebola epidemic was an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) mainly in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in other parts of Central Africa, from 2018 to 2020. Between 1 August 2018 and 25 June 2020 it resulted in 3,470 reported cases. The Kivu outbreak also affected Ituri Province, whose first case was confirmed on 13 August 2018. In November 2018, the outbreak became the biggest Ebola outbreak in the DRC's history, and had become the second-largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history worldwide, behind only the 2013–2016 Western Africa epidemic, until 29 July 2026, when the 2026 Ebola epidemic surpassed it, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak in the DRC and t…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 92

A multi-faceted pandemic: a review of the state of knowledge on the Zika virus.. While until recently the small and isolated Zika outbreaks in Eastern Asia and Pacific islands had been overlooked, the large-scale outbreak that started in Brazil in 2015 and the increase of microcephaly cases in the same place and time made media headlines. Considered as harmless until recently, Zika has given rise to an important global crisis that poses not only health challenges but also environmental, economical, social, and ethical challenges for states and people around the world. The main objective of this paper is to review the recent Zika outbreak by covering a broad range of disciplines and their in…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 80

The Challenges of Pregnancy and Childbirth Among Women Who Were Not Infected with Ebola Virus During the 2013–2015 West African Epidemic

Evidence: — • authority: 72

African traditional medicine is a range of traditional medicine disciplines involving indigenous herbalism and African spirituality, typically including diviners, midwives, and herbalists. Practitioners of traditional African medicine claim to be able to cure a variety of diverse conditions including cancer, psychiatric disorders, high blood pressure, cholera, most venereal diseases, epilepsy, asthma, eczema, fever, anxiety, depression, benign prostatic hyperplasia, urinary tract infections, gout, and healing of wounds and burns and Ebola. Diagnosis is reached through spiritual means and a treatment is prescribed, usually consisting of a herbal remedy that is considered to have not only hea…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in West Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The first cases were recorded in Guinea in December 2013; the disease spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, with minor outbreaks occurring in Nigeria and Mali. Secondary infections of medical workers occurred in the United States and Spain. Isolated cases were recorded in Senegal, the United Kingdom and Italy. The number of cases peaked in October 2014 and then began to decline gradually, following the commitment of substantial interna…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Analysis of Bodily Fluids and Fomites in Transmission of Ebola Virus Using Bigdata

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Racializing Fluids: Vomit, Airports and the 2013–16 Ebola Pandemic. This chapter follows vomit through airport exit-screening assemblages during the 2013–16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The chapter explores how and why vomit was constructed as a security threat, arguing that a distribution of life–death was achieved through a greater surveillance of West Africa bodies. Ultimately the chapter argues that airport screening assemblages worked to perpetuate discourses that reinstantiate race as a meaningful form of bodily differentiation. The chapter begins by giving some empirical context, before arguing that screening technologies are based upon colonial and gendered gazes that attempt to r…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Cultural practices, wildlife trade dynamics, and climate-migration interactions: an integrated one health approach to reducing zoonotic spillover risks in Africa.. The drivers causing spillovers of zoonotic diseases in Africa are multifaceted and include cultural and traditional wildlife practices, illegal trade channels, environmental factors driven by climate change, and human migration. These drivers have been assessed separately in various reviews, and no synthesis has integrated all four within a unified multistage zoonotic spillover framework in Southern Africa, West, and Central Africa. This narrative review explores how cultural practices, the trading of wildlife, climatic changes,…