This paper, based on an ethnographic study in southwestern Nigeria, seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of not only the health care access barriers, but the complex geographical, economic, and sociocultural factors that shape how and when people seek care for mpox within the context of urban informal settlements.
This paper explores mpox awareness, knowledge, and experiences among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Lagos, Nigeria, to provides insights to improve Nigeria’s mpox response and inform similar public health efforts in Africa where MSM criminalisation complicates MSM community engagement.
This paper examines community-based surveillance and primary health care as intersecting infrastructures to draw learning from lived experiences of mpox and the response to the mpox outbreak in southwestern Nigeria during 2022-23.
The Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) supported the Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the Enugu State Ministry of Health to strengthen their qualitative research capacity to improve preparedness for disease outbreak. This blog shares learning from the process.
Contextual social, political and livelihood understandings, factors affecting care-seeking and challenges to vaccination rollout were among the on-the-ground realities relating to mpox spread that experts discussed.
Social science networks can provide crucial support to stemming nCoV by promoting the understanding of the context-response relationship as emergent and constantly evolving.
Since March 2014, over 3,000 people have died from the relentless spread of the Ebola virus throughout the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
Despite the heroic efforts of the humanitarian and medical professionals in these countries, crumbling public health systems—which were notoriously weak even before the current outbreak began—and a lack of facilities, equipment and medical staff have tragically not been able to stem the tide in these countries.
In the three West African countries most affected by the recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak,resistance to public health measures contributed to the startling speed and persistence of this epidemic in the region. But how do we explain this resistance, and how have people in these communities understood their actions? By comparing these recent events to historical precedents during Cholera outbreaks in Europe in the 19th century we show that these events have not been new to history or unique to Africa.
Community resistance must be analysed in context and go beyond simple singlevariable determinants. Knowledge and respect of the cultures and beliefs of the afflicted is essential for dealing with threatening disease outbreaks and their potential social violence.
Cholera remains an important public health concern in developing countries including Kenya where 11,769 cases and 274 deaths were reported in 2009 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This ecological study investigates the impact of various climatic, environmental, and demographic variables on the spatial distribution of cholera cases in Kenya. District-level data was gathered from Kenya’s Division of Disease Surveillance and Response, the Meteorological Department, and the National Bureau of Statistics. The data included the entire population of Kenya from 1999 to 2009.
Multivariate analyses showed that districts had an increased risk of cholera outbreaks when a greater proportion of the population lived more than five kilometers from a health facility (RR: 1.025 per 1% increase; 95% CI: 1.010, 1.039),bordered a body of water (RR: 5.5; 95% CI: 2.472, 12.404), experienced increased rainfall from October to December(RR: 1.003 per 1 mm increase;
Cholera is generally regarded as the prototypical waterborne and environmental disease. In Africa, available studies are scarce, and the relevance of this disease paradigm is questionable. Cholera outbreaks have been repeatedly reported far from the coasts: from 2009 through 2011, three-quarters of all cholera cases in Africa occurred in inland regions. Such outbreaks are either influenced by rainfall and subsequent floods or by drought- and water-induced stress.
Their concurrence with global climatic events has also been observed. In lakes and rivers, aquatic reservoirs of Vibrio cholerae have been evocated. However, the role of these reservoirs in cholera epidemiology has not been established. Starting from inland cholera-endemic areas, epidemics burst and spread to various environments, including crowded slums and refugee camps. Human displacements constitute a major determinant of this spread.
This guidance document on ethical issues that arise specifically in the context of infectious disease outbreaks aims to complement existing guidance on ethics in public health. It should therefore be read in conjunction with more general guidance on issues such as public health surveillance, research with human participants, and addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Setting up decision-making systems and procedures in advance is the best way to ensure that ethically appropriate decisions will be made if an outbreak occurs.
Countries, health-care institutions,international organizations and others involved in epidemic response efforts are encouraged to develop practical strategies and tools to apply the principles in this guidance document to their specific settings, taking into account local social,cultural, and political contexts. WHO is committed to providing countries with technical assistance in support of these efforts.
This paper by Anoko J. N., reports on the success of a communication programme among 26 rebellious villages in Forest Guinea during fieldwork in June-July 2014.
This practical field guide brings together lessons learned from Oxfam’s past interventions in the prevention and control of cholera, and other related guidance. The aim is to provide a quick, step-by-step guide to inform cholera outbreak interventions and ensure public health programmes that are rapid, community-based, well-tailored, and gender and diversity aware.
They will enable both public health teams and programme managers to undertake necessary preparations to prevent cholera outbreaks from occurring and to respond effectively when they have occurred. They have been specifically designed to fit the cholera outbreak curve, depicting key activities in each critical phase before, during and after an outbreak. They can also be adapted to suit other water- and sanitation-related outbreaks, such as Typhoid, Hepatitis E, and dysentery, as well as other WASH-related diarrhoeal outbreaks
