Volume 11, Issue 1, October 2014, Pages 130–143
Julius Bradford Lamptey1 and Oladayo Nathaniel Awojobi2
1 Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
2 Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
On August 8, 2014, the United Nations World Health Organization declared the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa an international public health emergency. The high level of poverty in the West African sub-region and the dearth of medical personnel couple with the inadequate medical equipment poses a serious challenge to the prevention, treatment and eradication of the virus. In curbing the spread, there have been calls for collective support for containment of the disease in the affected countries. The paper examined the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease and its implication in the West Africa sub-region. The correlation analysis revealed a strong positive association between the reported cases of new infections and fatalities suggesting that as the number of new infections increases so is the strong likelihood of the number of fatalities increasing. The Kruskal Wallist Test revealed a statistically significant difference in the reported cases of infections and fatalities across the months. The paper finds that the spread of the virus has effects on health, productivity of workers, social life, migration, and national economy. Efforts towards prevention have been acknowledged at the international, regional, and national level. The study, however, cannot be empirically generalized in the analytical term. There is the need for further study to know the remote cause of the virus, how it is transmitted, the impact on affected persons and the treatment in a holistic perspective. The paper recommends:strong political will, quick intervention and efficient case management; improvement in the medical infrastructure base; and widespread education.
Author Keywords: Ebola Virus, Health, Response, West Africa, World Health Organization.
Julius Bradford Lamptey1 and Oladayo Nathaniel Awojobi2
1 Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
2 Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
On August 8, 2014, the United Nations World Health Organization declared the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa an international public health emergency. The high level of poverty in the West African sub-region and the dearth of medical personnel couple with the inadequate medical equipment poses a serious challenge to the prevention, treatment and eradication of the virus. In curbing the spread, there have been calls for collective support for containment of the disease in the affected countries. The paper examined the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease and its implication in the West Africa sub-region. The correlation analysis revealed a strong positive association between the reported cases of new infections and fatalities suggesting that as the number of new infections increases so is the strong likelihood of the number of fatalities increasing. The Kruskal Wallist Test revealed a statistically significant difference in the reported cases of infections and fatalities across the months. The paper finds that the spread of the virus has effects on health, productivity of workers, social life, migration, and national economy. Efforts towards prevention have been acknowledged at the international, regional, and national level. The study, however, cannot be empirically generalized in the analytical term. There is the need for further study to know the remote cause of the virus, how it is transmitted, the impact on affected persons and the treatment in a holistic perspective. The paper recommends:strong political will, quick intervention and efficient case management; improvement in the medical infrastructure base; and widespread education.
Author Keywords: Ebola Virus, Health, Response, West Africa, World Health Organization.
How to Cite this Article
Julius Bradford Lamptey and Oladayo Nathaniel Awojobi, “THE SPREAD OF THE EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN THE WEST AFRICAN SUB-REGION,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 130–143, October 2014.
