Angel Debeer ANTH208WASP2024 Essay 1 The Ebola epidemic of Western Africa in

Angel Debeer

ANTH208WASP2024

Essay 1

The Ebola epidemic of Western Africa in 2014 is one of the deadliest in recent history. On reason that the epidemic was so devastating was that efforts to combat the contagion were frustrated by An examination of local reactions to the epidemic, and to government actions to handle the situation, gives a clear illustration of the importance of how local perspectives, and national attitudes, can have a significant impact on public reaction to a widespread health crisis, as well as a foreshadowing of many of the challenges faced by health care workers during the recent COVID 19 pandemic.

The initial outbreak of Ebola was met by many with extreme skepticism. Legacies of corruption among the governments of several Western African nations meant that the populations were already cynical and distrustful of government agencies. One prevailing opinion was that the entire epidemic was fabricated to receive foreign aid. Even when communities begin to realize the reality of the situation distrust of government intentions remains. The high mortality rate of Ebola fuel’s a nefarious perception of government health workers. One health care worker with ‘Doctors Without Borders’ explains:

“Normally if you have someone who is sick, you take them to the hospital, and they get better. With Ebola, you have to negotiate bringing someone to the hospital because they’ll almost certainly die there.”(Mukpo)

Reluctance to trust the government and to accept the existence of the disease is being assisted by local beliefs. The belief that personalistic etiologies, meaning that the illness is a result of intentional supernatural causes, is held by many. Many believe that whatever illness they are encountering is the result of a curse. In these cases, traditional healers are favored. (Mukpo, 2014)

The acceptance of the existence of the epidemic and its naturalistic etiology (meaning the root cause of the illness is natural and impersonal), does not alleviate all complications. Fear of the disease creates stigma among the infected and their families in a society where stigmas cripple the social standing of a family in fundamental way. For this reason, many locals deny the infection of family members and hide them from outsiders, including healthcare workers. This, of course, allows the pathogen more opportunity to spread. (Nossiter 2014)

In addition to stigma, many smaller communities have denied aid of any kind, fearing that accepting such aid, and allowing health worker access to their communities, only leave them open to the virus. This is even further aggravated by a long-standing distrust of western governments and organizations where memories of colonialism and exploitation are still fresh. (Lydersen, 2014)

Finally, local traditions involving mourning and burial often proved to be at odds with recommended practice for dealing with the victims of the virus. In many infected areas, traditional burial preparations involved practices dangerous during an epidemic. These practices included bare handed handling of the corpse by several community members. Health authorities warned against such rituals but loyalty to these practices often run deeper than trust of any government or international authority. (Maxman, 2014)

Having met such intense resistance, the local governments changed their tactics and began appealing to community leaders. This approach produced better results after several months of the outbreak. As the epidemic took more lives, many local religious leaders were able to convince their congregations to set aside rigid adherence to these customs for the sake of combating the disease. New burial rituals were enacted which allowed religious observance while maintaining safer and healthier practices. (Maxman, 2014)

Western nations have given little credence to any explanation of any health crisis based on personalistic etiology in modern times. Some esoteric religious groups do maintain that all illnesses have supernatural causes and/or supernatural remedies, but in western society as a whole, this hasn’t been the case for several hundred years (with the possible exception of the initial response to the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980’s). This hasn’t been solidly true in Western Africa. Local traditions and beliefs remain strong. Much of the success that was achieved in combating the Ebola outbreak involved showing respect to these local customs rather than trying to forcibly sideline them.

While the Ebola outbreak didn’t threaten the western world, parallels between it and the COVID 19 outbreak several years later, exist. A significant amount of the population of the United States, for example, reacted to the outbreak in a number of unexpected ways. Conspiracy theories concerning the origin, as well as the true threat of the virus, circulated wildly. Resistance to recommended precautions, such as social distancing, vaccination, and mask wearing was common and became points of contention from small groups all the way to national political parties. These topics are still fresh in the memory of many and remain divisive and heated topics. That being said what can be objectively realized from comparing the two epidemics is the pattern of social reactions to sudden and large-scale health emergencies. This knowledge will, no doubt, prove valuable in the future, if it is properly accepted

Bibliography

Ashoka Mukpo, 2014, Vice News, https://www.vice.com/en/article/8x7b8k/why-dont-west-africans-believe-ebola-is-real

Adam Nossiter, 2014, NewYork Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-west-africa-guinea.html

Kari Lydersen, 2014, Discover Magazine, https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/ebola-teams-need-better-cultural-understanding-anthropologists-say

Amy Maxmen, 2014, National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/150130-ebola-virus-outbreak-epidemic-sierra-leone-funerals-1