Managing Rumours and Misinformation in West Africa
Rumours about Ebola generated social challenges that were real but surmountable, finds Amzath Fassasi.
rumours
Ebola Vaccine Trial in Sierra Leone Battles Against Fear and Logistics
Health workers face suspicion and a lack of cold storage as they test the Ebola vaccine and also try to reach children who have missed inoculations against other diseases.
Myths and Realities in Disaster Situations
In this resource, the World Health Organization debunk common myths relating to disaster situations and suggest further reading.
The Opposite of Denial: Social Learning at the Onset of the Ebola Emergency in Liberia
This working paper reports on a study to identify the pace of Ebola-related social learning in urban and peri-urban areas around Monrovia, Liberia during August 2014, at the onset of the emergency phase of the epidemic. The research demonstrates how under conditions of accelerating health crises, social learning is rapid even in a context of heightened instability, suspicion, and misinformation.
Misleading information in the form of local rumours and unhelpful government and international healthcare messages complicate this process and can produce anxiety. However, contrary to widespread assumptions of ‘ignorance’, and amidst the circulation of conspiracy theories, communities were able to uptake essential information regarding Ebola transmission and management rapidly and efficiently.
Contextualising Ebola Rumours from a Political, Historical and Social Perspective to Understand People’s Perceptions of Ebola and the Responses to it
This briefing explores how rumours about Ebola in Sierra Leone influences people’s perception and response to Ebola, from the political, historical and social perspectives. Despite the efforts of the World Health Organisation to control the Ebola outbreak, achieving zero cases and providing support for survivors, rumours about the cause of Ebola and the response to it continue to circulate.
These rumours, a product of the initially over stretched and poorly implemented Ebola response, were more often linked to long-term issues of structural violence that also contributed to the unprecedented spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone.Ebola rumours are thus an extremely fruitful way to elucidate both Sierra Leonean perceptions of Ebola and the response to it, and the multiple, global, political, economic and social inequalities that contributed to the outbreak. Although social mobilisation and sensitisation is important in the short-term, it is these issues that the Ebola response and those that dominate the current system of global health governance must grapple with to properly eradicate Ebola now and in the future.
Ebola and Extractive Industry
The economic effects of the Ebola health crisis are slowly unfolding as the virus continues to affect Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The most important sector is mining as these three countries share a rich iron ore geological beltway. The macroeconomic impacts of the crisis came into sharp focus when London Mining, Sierra Leone’s second largest iron ore producer, suspended its activities.
Ebola is also having a devastating impact on the informal mining sector, which provides a livelihood to some of the country’s poorest people. However, how the effects of mining have left countries vulnerable to the Ebola crisis also deserves attention. Large-scale mining creates social and ecological disruptions that could encourage the emergence and spread of disease. External mining interventions have also fuelled suspicion by local populations of foreign and government interventions, as they have received so few benefits from the mining resource boom.
Polio Vaccines – Difficult to Swallow The Story of a Controversy in Northern Nigeria
Global health and poverty reduction discourses have recognised immunisation as one of the most affordable and effective means of reducing child mortality and in a broader sense, as an essential contribution to poverty reduction efforts. While immunisation comes with countless benefits, it is potentially a complex and difficult health strategy to enforce. Decisions on broader health as well as immunisation goals are often made at a global level to be incorporated and adapted in to national health plans and budgets. Evidently for immunisation campaigns, the journey from the global to the local is a vulnerable and unpredictable one. Indeed ‘anti-vaccination rumours’ have been defined as a major threat to achieving vaccine coverage goals. This is demonstrated in this paper through a case study of responses to the Global Polio Eradication Campaign (GPEI) in northern Nigeria where Muslim leaders ordered the boycott of the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV).
The Social Dynamics of Infant Immunisation in Africa: Perspectives from the Republic of Guinea
Infant immunisation is currently a focus of national and global policy attention in relation to Africa as a key means to address ill-health and contribute to the Millennium Development Goals. Yet vaccination coverage is stagnant or falling in many African countries. Redressing such declines, and ensuring the effectiveness and sustainability of proposed expansion of immunisation programmes, requires a sound understanding of the factors shaping vaccine delivery and acceptance in contemporary African health systems. This paper explores these issues through an anthropological approach.
