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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,…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Briefing
Liberia: handling of bodies and national memorials – community perceptions from Monrovia
This brief summarises attitudes of community leaders and residents in and around Monrovia. It is intended to provide an evidence-base to support the SOP on safe and dignified burials, and to contribute to ongoing discussions about mass-graves and national memorials.…
Field notes
Summary of Discussions of the Ethics Working Group on Ethical issues related to study design for trials on therapeutics for Ebola Virus Disease
The first round of trials on novel therapeutics for Ebola are set to begin imminently. Members of the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform, Ann Kelly and Clare Chandler, represented the Platform by participating in the WHO Ethics Working Group meetings in…
Briefing
Local beliefs and behaviour change for preventing Ebola in Sierra Leone
‘The Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a biosafety level four pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a…
Briefing
Mobilising informal health workers for the Ebola response: potential and programme considerations
Informal health workers are important care providers in the region and continue to be so during the current Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak. Many are well respected and trusted members of the community who can mobilise large numbers of people…
Briefing
Burials in times of Ebola: Dos and Don’ts – issues of acceptability
Burials in times of Ebola or Marburg outbreaks have to follow strict biosafety rules to avoid transmission of Ebola/Marburg virus. At the same time, they should be acceptable to families and communities to avoid resistance against disease control. This document…
Blog
Ebola strips Africans of their humanity
After long months of relative silence, the world finally heatedly debates on Ebola. The quantity of aid is widely considered to be the major problem. The quality of the aid being offered however, is not under scrutiny. Everybody seems to…
Blog
Ebola: The Challenges: Event summary of roundtable held as part of African Studies Association Conference 2014
Held as part of the African Studies Association conference 2014, Ebola: The Challenges united an esteemed panel of speakers to discuss ways in which academia can mobilise to support those effected by the ebola outbreak.
Research paper
Gendered War and Rumors of Saddam Hussein in Uganda
This article discusses the role of rumors in everyday Acholi life in war-torn northern Uganda. These rumors concern various health threats such as HIV and Ebola. The rumors are closely associated with the forces of domination that are alleged to…
Research paper
Social Pathways for Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Sierra Leone, and some Implications for Containment
The current outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in Upper West Africa is the largest ever recorded. Molecular evidence suggests spread has been almost exclusively through human-to-human contact. Social factors are thus clearly important to understand the epidemic and ways in…
Field notes
“Wise people” help to fight Ebola in remote villages
“We are your brothers and sisters, we could never lie to you” says 60-year-old Marianne, as she walks from her motorbike towards a group of angry people in village Katkama. She opens her hand and offers a cola nut and…
Background report
Dying as Transformation to Ancestorhood: The Sherbro Coast of Sierra Leone
People who live in the Sherbro coastal area of Sierra Leone have a social organisation based upon descent from named ancestors and acestresses. Ancestors, the living, and those not yet born constitute a great chain of being. This continuum of…
Blog
Ebola: failures, flashpoints and focus
As the worst Ebola epidemic on record shows no signs of abating in West Africa, fear and ignorance are increasingly said to be playing a role in its continued spread. Meanwhile, local practices such as the consumption of bushmeat and deforestation are the go-to explanations…
Background report
Leprosy among the Limba: illness and healing in the context of world view
The study analyzes the traditional beliefs and practices concerning leprosy of the Limba people of Sierra Leone. It shows that this dialectally diverse ethnic group has two views of leprosy and its cause, and two varieties of stigma associated with…
Background report
Les Gens du Riz (The Rice People)
This is a chapter on Kissi Funerals in the region of Guekedou and Kissidougou. Whilst this is based on fieldwork conducted in 1945-6, many of the ritual practices and meanings were current and observed in Kissi villages in 1991-3. For…
Field notes
Woman saves three relatives from Ebola
It can be exhausting nursing a child through a nasty bout with the flu, so imagine how 22-year-old Fatu Kekula felt nursing her entire family through Ebola. Her father. Her mother. Her sister. Her cousin. Fatu took care of them…
