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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,”…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
