English Archives - Page 20 of 21 - Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform

Evidence review

The First Mile: Community Experience of Outbreak Control during an Ebola Outbreak in Luwero District, Uganda

A major challenge to outbreak control lies in early detection of viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) in local community contexts during the critical initial stages of an epidemic, when risk of spreading is its highest (“the first mile”). This paper documents…

BMC Public Health

2016

Background report

Childhood vaccination and society in The Gambia: public engagement with science and delivery

This paper examines public engagement with routine vaccination delivery, and vaccine trials and related medical research, in The Gambia. Its approach is rooted in social and medical anthropology and ethnographic methods, but combines insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge,…

IDS

2004

Evidence review

Helpdesk Research Report: Mobile Telephony for Improved Health Service and Data Management

This report provides some recent examples of the use of mobile telephony to improve health serviceoutcomes. There is significant potential for the use of mobile telephony to improve health serviceoutcomes and data management. Opportunities include: serving as a less costly…

IDS

2012

Briefing

Community-led Ebola Action (CLEA) and the Social Mobilisation Action Consortium (SMAC)

The Community Led Ebola Action (CLEA) has empowered communities to do their own analysis and take their own action to become Ebola-free in Sierra Leone. CLEA has focused on triggering collective action by inspiring communities to understand the urgency and…

2015

Field notes

Community Led Ebola Management and Eradication (CLEME)

The CLEME (Community Led Ebola Man- agement and Eradication) programme aims at triggering the behavioural change needed by the communities to strengthen community resilience to the outbreak and prevent further resurgence by ensuring real and sustainable improvements through: Providing the communities…

2015

Research paper

Understanding why ebola deaths occur at home in urban Montserrado County, Liberia

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) home deaths occur as the result of infected persons not being detected early and sent to Ebola Treatment Units (ETU) where they can access care and have an improved chance of survival. From a public health…

2014

Field notes

Ebola: demanding accountability and mobilizing societies to avoid a deadly relapse

The enduring Ebola epidemic has taught the world some hard lessons over the last 12 months, which we must take to heart. Despite early warnings, and the extraordinary efforts of local healthcare workers and private medical humanitarian organisations, the epidemic…

2015

Field notes

Community-Based Ebola Care Centres: A Formative Evaluation

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa differed from others in its unprecedented size and the high proportion of human-to-human transmission occurring in the community. This report presents an analysis of the impact of Community Care Centres (CCCs) on communities in…

2015

Briefing

Africa APPG inquiry: Community led health systems & the Ebola outbreak

The Ebola crisis of 2014-15 has brought questions around the roles of communities and health systems into sharp relief – both in relation to crisis response, and to the challenges of post-crisis recovery and building resilience to future epidemics. The…

2015

Background report

Ebola Crisis Appeal – Response Review

This is the review of the Ebola Crisis Appeal Response in Sierra Leone of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) that unites 13 of the largest UK humanitarian charities to raise funds in response to major international humanitarian crises. The review…

2015

Briefing

Resistance in Guinea

There have been numerous recent analyses of the different manifestations of ‘resistance’ and ‘reticence’ that continue to be critical in Guinea. The socio-historical context that has contributed to deep-rooted mistrust of the State and authority (a sense of ‘abandonment’ [the…

2015

Field notes

A year on, Guineans finally lay Ebola souls to rest

GUECKEDOU, 28 April 2015 (IRIN) – Forty-six-year-old Maurice Ouendeno stares silently at the arm of his blue plastic lawn chair. He waits a few minutes before beginning his story. “They said we did not have the right to bury him,”…

2015

Briefing

Never Again: Building resilient health systems and learning from the Ebola crisis

It took the threat of a global health crisis to illustrate the failings of Africa’s health systems. Resilient health systems, free at the point of use, are evidently a global public good. They are essential for the provision of universal…

2015

Briefing

Policy Briefing on Community-based Ebola Care Centres

A component of the Ebola epidemic control policy in Sierra Leone is triage and isolation in decentralised Community Care Centres (CCCs) or Holding Units, from where transfer to Ebola treatment units (ETUs) is arranged for those diagnosed as positive. The…

2015

Field notes

Ebola’s Ecologies – Limn January 2015 Issue

This issue of Limn on “Ebola’s Ecologies” examines how the 2014 Ebola outbreak has put the norms, practices, and institutional logics of global health into question, and examines the new assemblages that are being forged in its wake. The contributions…

2015

Field notes

How Ebola infection spreads and terminates in rural Sierra Leone

Ebola is a new disease in Upper West Africa. Populations have taken time to learn the nature of the risk it poses. Persons carrying infection initially do not know that they have the sickness. They carry out their daily activities,…

2015

Field notes

What causes Ebola Virus disease?

The four villages in this report are found on the edge of the Gola Rainforest National Park, Sierra Leone and have been studied by members of the present team at intervals since 1987. The aim of this long-term study was…

2015

Blog

Unsung Heroes on the Ebola Frontline

The “selflessness of aid workers and medical volunteers” was praised both by the Queen in her Christmas message and by TIME magazine, who named ‘The Ebola Fighter’s their person of the year 2014. This emphasis on international staff, particularly doctors and nurses, gives a…

2015

Field notes

Village Responses to Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Eastern Sierra Leone: Second Interim Report

This report provides further output from an anthropological study of 25 villages affected by Ebola Virus Disease in eastern and central Sierra Leone, undertaken as part of the DFID-funded social mobilization initiative for Ebola prevention in Sierra Leone. Eight focus…

2015

Research paper

Do traditions spread Ebola?

In a recent interesting contribution to this platform, Paul Richards rightly questioned the mainstream perception that funerals per se are source of contamination in countries affected by ebola. The author argues that funerals are phenomena which are extremely interrelated to…

2015

Field notes

Village Responses To Ebola Virus Disease In Rural Central Sierra Leone

Bawuya is a small, isolated Kpa-Mende farming village about 3 hours walking time from Taiama, headquarters of Kori chiefdom in Moyamba District, Southern Sierra Leone. Bawuya experienced an Ebola outbreak in September 2014, in which 9 people died and 3…

2015

Briefing

Anthropology & Ebola Clinical Research

The Working Group on Clinial Trials coordinated by the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform has produced a working document which considers the clinical trials that are planned as part of the Ebola outbreak response from a sociological and anthropological perspective. The document develops…

2014

Briefing

Attitudes towards Ebola related funerary practices and memorialization in urban Liberia

This briefing summarises the attitudes of Monrovia community leaders and residents towards cremation, mass burials, memorialization, and remembrance ceremonies based on data collected between August – September 2014.

2014

Field notes

Community-based reports of co-morbidity, co-mortality, and health-seeking behaviors in four Monrovia communities during the West African Ebola epidemic

This working paper reports on a study to collect data on co-morbidity and co-mortality among urban Liberian populations during the Ebola epidemic from September to October 2014. Particular attention is paid to how local communities defined their symptoms and sicknesses,…

2014

Research paper

Briefing: Ebola – myths, realities, and structural violence

The scale of West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has been attributed to the weak health systems of affected countries, their lack of resources, the mobility of communities and their inexperience in dealing with Ebola. This briefing for African Affairs argues that…

2014

Briefing

Ebola Survivors: using a stepwise re-integration process to establish social contracts between survivors and their home communities

We propose that the point of discharge of someone who has survived Ebola virus disease (EVD) should become a staged transition back into the community, linked to a social contract that ties targeted support to adherence to infection control practices.…

2014

Briefing

Identifying and Enrolling Survivors to Donate Blood

Survivors are rapidly becoming a strategic population for the Ebola Outbreak response. The public health potential of this group appear to be manifold—from safe burials and the care for orphan children to community outreach and the donation of blood for…

2014

Research paper

Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission

Christopher J. M. Whitty and colleagues explain why the United Kingdom is funding many small community centres to isolate suspected cases in Sierra Leone. The UK government is leading the international response to Ebola in Sierra Leone, providing technical, financial…

2014

Briefing

Do Funerals Spread Ebola?

Some attention has been paid to the alleged role of funerals in spreading Ebola Virus Disease in Upper West Africa. This has led to attempts to control funerals, causing both distress and active resistance. Critical examination of the role of…

2014

Briefing

Increasing early presentation to ECU through improving care

Current Ebola epidemic control policy in Sierra Leone focuses on (a) triage and isolation in decentralised, ideally community-based Ebola Care Units (ECUs), leading to (b) transfer to Ebola treatment units (ETUs) for those diagnosed as positive. Increasing early presentation to ECUs…

2014

Briefing

Mobilising youth for Ebola education: Sierra Leone and Liberia

This brief summarises some key considerations about mobilising youth and youth groups in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The details have been collated from suggestions and insights provided by networks of anthropologists in the UK and US…

2014

Briefing

Sierra Leone: Gift giving during initial community consultations

This brief summarises appropriate gift giving during initial community consultations in Sierra Leone. It is intended to provide an overview of good practices to support UNICEF, the WHO and other agencies as they interact with Paramount Chiefs prior the implementation…

2014

Briefing

The AAA/Wenner-Gren Ebola Emergency Response Workshop

As of November 4, 2014, the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is confirmed to have infected 13,268 individuals, with 4,960 total deaths estimated. The global Ebola response is evolving rapidly, and as it has evolved, it has become increasingly apparent…

2014

Briefing

Field situation: How to conduct safe and dignified burial of a patient who has died from suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease.

WHO has developed a protocol to provide information on the safe management of burial of patients who died from suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease. These measures should be applied not only by medical personnel but by anyone involved in the management of…

2014

Policy document

Care and Burial Practices in Urban Sierra Leone

Funeral practices in Freetown are varied with differences between typical Muslim and Christian practices. Muslims typically bury the body the same day, or the day after, the death, whereas Christians might wait for up to several weeks while arrangements are…

2014