Meeting the Challenge of Ebola Virus Disease in a Holistic Manner by Taking into Account Socioeconomic and Cultural Factors: The Experience of West Africa

Phua, Kai-Lit

doi:10.4137/idrt.s31568

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Phua, 12 attributed the recent outbreaks of EVD in West Africa particularly, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia to be due to widespread ignorance by lay persons on its cause, transmission and protective measures. The study also further goes to state that consumption of ‘bush meat’, lack of trust for health authorities and its inadequacy as well as traditional funeral practise and inter-border trading may have facilitated the spread.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Media coverage of the Ebola virus disease in four widelycirculated Nigerian newspapers: lessons from Nigeria

Smith¹,

Smith²

2016

Health Promot Perspect

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Background: The importance of the media in the coverage of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Nigeria and its implications (negative or positive) amongst the populace cannot be overemphasized.This study was conducted to assess the role of media in the Ebola reportage and its implication in creating awareness and stopping the spread amongst the populace. Methods: The nature and extent of media coverage about Ebola in four major national newspapers were examined. The four major national newspapers were The Sun, The Vanguard, The Nation and The Punch newspapers. The period of study ranged from 20 July (when the index case came to Nigeria) to 20 October 2014. Analysis of the newspaper article was according to content. Results: A total of 1625 articles were published between July 2014 to October 2014 and these were divided into news (1127; 69.4%), features (267; 16.4%), opinion (76; 4.7%), editorials (149; 9.2%) and interviews (6; 0.4%). The most common topic was Ebola cases in Nigeria (17.5%) followed by discrimination due to Ebola (10.8%) and least of all the use of salt and or Kola for the cure of Ebola (5.2%). Conclusion: Although the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Nigeria Ebola free on the 20th October 2014, continual reportage of the Ebola disease for effective awareness, prevention and control of the virus is recommended.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Media coverage of the Ebola virus disease in four widelycirculated Nigerian newspapers: lessons from Nigeria

Smith¹,

Smith²

2016

Health Promot Perspect

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“…The importance of cultural practices and community perception can be critical to the success of epidemic control measures as was the case during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa [54]. Social stigmatization and deeply ingrained cultural practices such as ritual washing of the deceased and the consumption of bush meat threatened the success of mitigation efforts [55,56]. Investigating underlying social factors associated with chikungunya and barriers and facilitators to potential mitigation options through qualitative research would be useful for designing future education and control strategies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chikungunya among the public and health professionals: a systematic review

Corrin¹,

Waddell²,

Greig³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background Recently, attention to chikungunya has increased due to its spread into previously non-endemic areas. Since there is no available treatment or vaccine, most intervention strategies focus on mosquito bite prevention and mosquito control, which require community involvement to be successful. Thus, our objective was to systematically review the global primary literature on the risk perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chikungunya among the public and health professionals to inform future research and improve our understanding on which intervention strategies are likely to be successful. Methods Potentially relevant articles were identified through a standardized systematic review (SR) process consisting of the following steps: comprehensive search strategy in seven databases (Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL, CAB, LILACS, Agricola, and Cochrane) and a grey literature search of public health organizations, relevance screening, risk of bias assessment, and data extraction. Two independent reviewers performed each step. Reporting of this SR follows PRISMA reporting guidelines. Results Thirty-seven relevant articles were identified. The majority of the articles were published since 2011 (83.8%) and reported on studies conducted in Asia (48.7%) and the Indian Ocean Islands (24.3%). The results were separated into four categories: general knowledge and perceptions on chikungunya; perceptions on the risk and severity of chikungunya; knowledge of chikungunya-harboring vectors and transmission; and knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes on mitigation practices. Overall, the systematic review found that risk perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chikungunya among the public and health professionals vary across populations and countries and knowledge is higher in areas that have experienced an outbreak. Conclusion The results suggest that most of the affected populations in this study do not understand mosquito borne diseases or chikungunya and are therefore less likely to protect themselves from mosquito bites. While more research is required to improve the generalizability of this dataset, it appears that a lack of knowledge is an important barrier for motivating community level interventions and personal protection against mosquitoes.

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“…Although typically the blame of the origins of infectious diseases are typically placed on a cultural minority group (Hagan et al 2015;Kobayashi et al 2015;Phua 2015; World Health Organization 2017c), with response action emphasizing individual behavior, prevention of mosquito bites and sexual transmission (World Health Organization 2017d; Brym and Lie 2014), however, arguably, in the case of the Zika epidemic, considerable responsibility was given to the effects of globalization. Globalization has been defined in numerous ways.…”

Section: Attribution Of Infectious Disease Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, traditional burial practices and the consumption of bush meat were identified as key etiological factors to the Ebola epidemic . Some analysts even suggest that these cultural practices, in addition to local distrust of authorities may have obstructed interventions (Phua 2015;World Health Organization 2017c;Cordner et al 2017). Therefore, population behaviors, such as education and safe burials and cremations, were proposed as targets for intervention (Hagan et al 2015;Alexander et al 2015).…”

Section: Attribution Of Infectious Disease Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spread of the Zika virus in Brazil is largely attributed to the consequences of globalization, including the widening habitat of the Aedes mosquito vector and increased human and air travel (Plourde and Bloch 2016;Gyawali et al 2016;Fast et al 2015;World Health Organization 2017e;Ordaz-Németh et al 2017). Cultural explanations are prominent in the outbreak narrative speaking to Ebola in Liberia, specifically the human consumption of bush meat and local/traditional burial practices that involve the touching and kissing of the deceased (Hagan et al 2015;Kobayashi et al 2015;Phua 2015;World Health Organization 2017c;Washington and Meltzer 2015;Ng 2008).…”

Section: Attribution Of Infectious Disease Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Politics of Disease Epidemics: a Comparative Analysis of the SARS, Zika, and Ebola Outbreaks

Kapiriri

Ross

2018

Glob Soc Welf

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Over the past few decades, disease outbreaks have become increasingly frequent and widespread. The epicenters of these outbreaks have differed, and could be linked to different economic contexts. Arguably, the responses to these outbreaks have been Bpolitical^and inherently burdensome to marginalized populations. Key lessons can be learned from exploring the narratives about the different epidemics in varying income settings. Based on a review of the published medical, social, and political literature, which was accessed using four electronic databases-PubMed, Sociological Abstracts, Scholars Portal, and Web of Science, the overall objective of this paper discuss scholars' narratives on the Bpolitics^of Ebola in a low-income setting, Zika virus in a middle-income setting, and SARS in a high-income setting. Various themes of the politics of epidemics were prominent in the literature. The narratives demonstrated the influence of power in whose narratives and what narratives are presented in the literature. While marginalized populations were reported to have borne the brunt of all disease outbreaks in the different contexts, the prevalence of their narratives within the reviewed literature was limited. Regardless of income setting, there is a need to give voice to the most marginalized communities during an epidemic. The experiences and narratives of those most vulnerable to an epidemic-specifically poor communities-need to be represented in the literature. This could contribute to mitigating some of the negative impact of the politics in epidemics.

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Meeting the Challenge of Ebola Virus Disease in a Holistic Manner by Taking into Account Socioeconomic and Cultural Factors: The Experience of West Africa

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

Media coverage of the Ebola virus disease in four widelycirculated Nigerian newspapers: lessons from Nigeria

Media coverage of the Ebola virus disease in four widelycirculated Nigerian newspapers: lessons from Nigeria

Risk perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chikungunya among the public and health professionals: a systematic review

The Politics of Disease Epidemics: a Comparative Analysis of the SARS, Zika, and Ebola Outbreaks

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