Epidemic preparedness and response Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform

Research paper

“We are the heroes because we are ready to die for this country”: Participants’ decision-making and grounded ethics in an Ebola vaccine clinical trial

This paper reports findings from social science research carried out in Kambia, Northern Sierra Leone during first year of an Ebola vaccine trial (August 2015–July 2016). The study used a range of qualitative methods to explore participant motivations for volunteering…

West Africa Hub

2018

Research paper

Vaccine anxieties, vaccine preparedness: Perspectives from Africa in a Covid-19 era

This study used a ‘vaccine anxieties’ framework to consider the socially-embedded reasons why people want or do not want Covid-19 vaccines, and how this intersects with the dynamics of vaccine supply, access and distribution in rapidly-unfolding epidemic situations. Whereas discourses…

West Africa Hub

2022

Research paper

Unintended consequences of the ‘bushmeat ban’ in West Africa during the 2013-2016 Ebola virus disease epidemic.

Following the 2013-2016 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, governments across the region imposed a ban on the hunting and consumption of meat from wild animals. This injunction was accompanied by public health messages emphasising the infectious…

West Africa Hub

2018

Research paper

Unintended consequences of implementing non-pharmaceutical interventions for the COVID-19 response in Africa: experiences from DRC, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda

The coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic is one of the most terrifying disasters of the 21st century. The non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented to control the spread of the disease had numerous positive consequences. However, there were also unintended consequences—positively or negatively…

West Africa Hub

2023

Research paper

The symbolic violence of ‘outbreak’: A mixed methods, quasi-experimental impact evaluation of social protection on Ebola survivor wellbeing

Despite over 28,000 reported cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the 2013-16 outbreak in West Africa, we are only beginning to trace the complex biosocial processes that have promoted its spread. Important questions remain, including the effects on survivors…

West Africa Hub

2017

Research paper

The perceived effects of COVID-19 pandemic on female genital mutilation/cutting and child or forced marriages in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Senegal

The effects of COVID-19 on harmful traditional practices such Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and Child or Forced Marriages (CFM) have not been well documented. We examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected FGM/C and CFM in Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, and…

West Africa Hub

2022

Research paper

The Allure of Scapegoating Return Migrants during a Pandemic

The stigmatization of Senegalese return migrants as COVID-19 vectors by fellow Senegalese during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic troubles the self/other distinction that underpins the scholarly focus on epidemics and xenophobia and encourages the broader task of exploring…

West Africa Hub

2021

Research paper

Structural drivers of vulnerability to zoonotic disease in Africa

This paper analyses three case studies—trypanosomiasis in Zimbabwe, Ebola and Lassa fever in Sierra Leone and Rift Valley fever in Kenya — to argue that addressing the underlying structural drivers of disease vulnerability is essential for a ‘One Health’ approach…

West Africa Hub

2017

Research paper

Qualitative exploration of health system response to COVID-19 pandemic applying the WHO health systems framework: Case study of a Nigerian state

Health systems have an important role in a multi-sector response to pandemics, as there are already concerns that COVID-19 will significantly divert limited health care resources. This study appraised the readiness and resilience of the Nigerian health system to the…

West Africa Hub

2021

Private sector engagement in the COVID-19 response: experiences and lessons from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda

The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed health systems and precipitated coalitions between public and private sectors to address critical gaps in the response. We conducted a study to document the public and private sector partnerships and engagements to inform current and…

West Africa Hub

2022

Political distrust and the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria

This study explores the impact of political distrust on the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

West Africa Hub

2020

Policy response to COVID-19 in Senegal: power, politics, and the choice of policy instruments

The objective of the paper is to understand how Senegal formulated its policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The response was rapid, comprising conventional policy instruments used previously for containing Ebola.

West Africa Hub

2022

Participating in a vaccine trial for COVID-19 in Senegal: trust and information

This research aims to understand the level and determinants of people’s willingness to participate in a vaccine trial for COVID-19 in Senegal.

West Africa Hub

2021

Negotiating Intersecting Precarities: COVID-19, Pandemic Preparedness and Response in Africa

This article shares findings on COVID-19 in Africa across 2020 to examine concepts and practices of epidemic preparedness and response. Amidst uncertainties about the trajectory of COVID-19, the stages of emergency response emerge in practice as interconnected.

West Africa Hub

2022

Local disease-ecosystem-livelihood dynamics: reflections from comparative case studies in Africa

This article explores the implications for human health of local interactions between disease, ecosystems and livelihoods. Five interdisciplinary case studies addressed zoonotic diseases in African settings: Rift Valley fever (RVF) in Kenya, human African trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe, Lassa…

West Africa Hub

2017

Lessons learned from engaging communities for Ebola vaccine trials in Sierra Leone: reciprocity, relatability, relationships and respect (the four R’s)

Building trust and engaging the community are important for biomedical trials. This was core to the set up and delivery of the EBOVAC-Salone and PREVAC Ebola vaccine trials in Sierra Leone during and following the 2014–2016 West African Ebola epidemic.…

West Africa Hub

2019

Imagining HIV/AIDS: Morality and perceptions of personal risk in Nigeria

The disparity between people’s knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the extent to which they take measures to protect themselves is one of the most vexing issues for public health workers and social science analysts. This paper aims to explain some of…

West Africa Hub

2003

Exploring the cultural context of HIV/AIDS pandemic in a Nigerian community: Implication for culture specific prevention programmes

The new face of Human Immune Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has earned its recognition as a social problem due to the associated devastating social and cultural consequences on the individual and the society at large. As such,…

West Africa Hub

2008

Engaging ‘communities’: anthropological insights from the West African Ebola epidemic

This article reflects on the nature of community engagement during the Ebola epidemic and demonstrates a disjuncture between local realities and what is being imagined in post-Ebola reports about the lessons that need to be learned for the future.

West Africa Hub

2017

COVID-19 in Senegal: Exploring the Historical Context

While many academics and popular journalists have recently addressed historical epidemics in the context of COVID-19, much of this literature concerns the history of former colonial powers rather than the history of formerly colonized states. This review finds that the…

West Africa Hub

2020

Courting success in HIV/AIDS prevention: the challenges of addressing a concentrated epidemic in Senegal

This article presents findings from a study of HIV/AIDS programmes for urban sex workers in Dakar, Senegal. The objective of the research was to assess HIV prevention and treatment efforts to date, and to identify challenges that must be overcome…

West Africa Hub

2010

Conjuring Biosecurity in the Post-Ebola Kissi Triangle: The Magic of Paperwork in a Frontier Clinic.

This article considers the increasing centrality of biosecurity and epidemiological surveillance as key priorities for the Sierra Leonean health care system after the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak.

West Africa Hub

2019

Civilian perception of the role of the military in Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak and health-related responses in the North East region

Civilian–military relations play an important yet under-researched role in low-income and middle-income country epidemic response. One crucial component of civilian–military relations is defining the role of the military. This paper evaluates the role of Nigerian military during the 2014–2016 West…

West Africa Hub

2023

Challenges in Implementing the National Health Response to COVID-19 in Senegal

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, many epidemiological or anthropological studies have been published. However, few studies have yet been conducted to understand the implementation of State interventions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In Senegal, the national…

West Africa Hub

2022

Ebola-Myths, Realities, and Structural Violence

This briefing examines responses to the Ebola outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development.

West Africa Hub

2015

Behavioural and emotional responses to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria: a narrative review

This paper reviews the behavioural and emotional responses to the 2014 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Nigeria as documented in scientific publications and portrayed in the media between 21 July 2014 and 30 March 2015.

West Africa Hub

Oxford University Press

2016

Accepted monitoring or endured quarantine? Ebola contacts’ perceptions in Senegal

During the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic, transmission chains were controlled through contact tracing, i.e., identification and follow-up of people exposed to Ebola cases. WHO recommendations for daily check-ups of physical symptoms with social distancing for 21 days were unevenly…

West Africa Hub

2017

Case study

Strengthening health information surveillance: Implementing community-based surveillance in Sudan

This case study explores the 2018–22 implementation of a national community-based surveillance programme in Sudan designed to meet critical needs of the existing health surveillance system.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2023

Briefing

Community-Based Surveillance in Public Health

Recent large-scale epidemics and pandemics have demonstrated the importance of engaging communities as partners in preventing, detecting and responding to public health emergencies. Community-based surveillance (CBS), which relies on communities to report public health information, can be an important part…

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2023

Multimedia

Views of mpox in Nigeria

This photo story explores how mpox is felt and understood by different people in Nigeria – including those with symptoms, the wider community and healthcare workers.

West Africa Hub

2023

blog

Mpox as a public health emergency of international concern: preparedness, priorities, politics

In this blog, authors from a recent project invesitgating Mpox (formerly monkeypox) in Nigeria discuss the findings, and their implications for pandemic preparedness and future priorities.

Central and East Africa Hub

Hayley MacGregor, Ayodele Jegede, Syed Abbas, Michael Kunnuji, Akanni Lawanson, Olufunke Adegoke, Megan Schmidt-Sane

15 May 2023

Briefing

Guidance Note on community engagement for cholera outbreak response in the East and Southern Africa region

The purpose of this guidance note is to support Ministries of Health, UNICEF, and other response partners to design and implement effective, community-centred, and data-driven community engagement for cholera outbreak response.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2023

Question Bank

Tools

Cholera question bank

These resources are intended to support operational social science research to be used in cholera preparedness and response activities.

SSHAP

2023

blog

How can South-South collaboration improve responses to crises? Perspectives from South Sudan, Uganda and the DRC

In this blog, Central and East Africa Regional Hub partners, Grace Akello, Leben Moro and Godefroid Muzalia share their perspectives on what regional collaboration looks like, from the Ebola response to bridging connections between South-South and North-South Collaborations.

Central and East Africa Hub

Grace Akello, Leben Moro, Godefroid Muzalia

29 Mar 2023

Briefing

Socio-behavioural insight for community-centred cholera preparedness and response In Mozambique, 2023

This brief explores socio-behavioural determinants including local knowledge, perceptions, practices, and structural factors influencing cholera transmission dynamics. The brief has been developed to support response actors develop prevention and control strategies to rapidly contain the outbreak and prepare for a…

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2023

Policy document

Strategic Response Plan For The Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak In The Provinces Of North Kivu And Ituri Democratic Republic Of The Congo July – December 2019

This document sets out the Ministry of Health’s strategic response to the Ebola Virus outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in 2019. Taking into account the impact of insecurity in these regions, the plan details how the government planned…

Central and East Africa Hub