Ebola Outbreak

How unique was the Ebola outbreak in post-civil war Sierra Leone?

As many countries in Africa are still grappling with violent conflict, one cannot overlook the likelihood that these countries are at risk of Ebola outbreak or some other types of deadly diseases. It is, therefore, useful to address the question as to whether there are other diseases that could occur in post-civil war societies and whether the strategies and policy recommendations for a country to address these diseases will vary.

A scan of the literature shows that post-civil war environments are prone to other forms of deadly infectious diseases. Lassa fever, Shigella dysenteriae, and Tularemia have reportedly affected post-civil war Sierra Leone in 2004, Burundian refugees

Policy recommendations such as improving the national health systems and physical infrastructure, investment in the training of local health workers, and ensuring the security and protection of aid workers have already been proposed by various experts. In this light, this policy paper is limiting in its scope and must not be viewed as a panacea to health issues in post-civil war Sierra Leone but complementary to other initiatives. Second, just like most policy-level reports, my recommendations are based on a qualitative analysis which lacks the scientific rigor to determine whether, for example, corruption, state weakness, and the breakdown of trust are significantly correlated with the difficulty in containing the EVD in Sierra Leone and whether there may be a variation of the effect of these factors to other diseases. Further empirical research is therefore needed to establish the causal effects and the role corruption, poor governance, and the lack of trust played in Sierra Leone's inability to contain the Ebola outbreak. A cross-country study will also be crucial to determine why for instance, the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was controlled even though these countries are also grappling with severe civil