Our team recently covered this topic on our blog.

In his book “Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History,” author Paul Farmer reports on the myriad of complex cultural, political, and economic factors that contribute to the conditions that allow Ebola to exist in West Africa. Though too numerous to list here, they include a lack of education, especially in poor and rural communities; Lack of infrastructure, including roads, hospitals, and clinics; Years of civil war and strife, driving professional outmigration; A lasting control-over-care legacy of colonial rule that officials use to quarantine and isolate the affected, rather than developing a medical and educational infrastructure that emphasizes a proactive approach to care; Caregiving practices, especially for the deceased, that are often the responsibility of the family – this results in the deceased spreading the virus to members of their family; The virus is difficult to study due to fear of infection, so even basic therapies aren’t fully understood.In the wake of these many harrowing, ongoing, and compounding factors, the virus itself is sometimes seen as the final blow.