Shelley Lees, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Luisa Enria, University of Bath
A proper understanding of community dynamics and local beliefs can inform medical interventions that are capable of establishing positive and productive relations with local communities.
Border screening at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
EPA-EFE/DANIEL IRUNGU
Janusz Paweska, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Borders are porous between North Kivu province of the DRC and neighbouring countries, so the potential for spread is highly likely.
Health workers from Bwera hospital prepare to transport the body of a fifty-year-old woman who died of Ebola to the burial site in Bwera, Uganda.
MELANIE ATUREEBE/EPA
Ebola is difficult to contain because of human social and behavioural factors. But it can be if 100% of the infected people’s contacts are identified and monitored.
The Ebola virus claimed 11,000 lives in 2014. Today, scientists may have cured the disease in guinea pigs by using antibodies.
During high-stress deadly epidemics, even well-trained responders can get caught up in behaviors that are more harmful than helpful.
AP Photo/Olivier Matthys
The high stress conditions of an outbreak can spread a dysfunctional culture among those working to fight it. A survey after the 2015 Ebola epidemic quantified the issue – and suggests a better way.
Health workers in Liberia at the height of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
In January, measles returned to the Pacific Northwest, while Ebola resurged in the Congo. It would take a lot more research for scientists to be able to stop threats like these in their tracks.
A health worker prepares to administer the experimental Ebola vaccine in north-western DRC.
EPA-EFE/STR
Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard University, and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia
Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool