Meeting the Challenge of Epidemic Infectious Disease Outbreaks: An Agenda for Research

Abstract

Challenges arising from epidemic infectious disease outbreaks can be more effectively met if traditional public health is enhanced by sociology. The focus is normally on biomedical aspects, the surveillance and sentinel systems for infectious diseases, and what needs to be done to bring outbreaks under control quickly. Social factors associated with infectious disease outbreaks are often neglected and the aftermath is ignored. These factors can affect outbreak severity, its rate and extent of spread, influencing the welfare of victims, their families, and their communities. We propose an agenda for research to meet the challenges of infectious disease outbreaks. What social factors led to the outbreak? What social factors affected its severity and rate and extent of spread? How did individuals, social groups, and the state react to it? What are the short- and long-term effects on individuals, social groups, and the larger society? What programs can be put in place to help victims, their families, and affected communities to cope with the consequences--impaired mental and physical health, economic losses, and disrupted communities? Although current research on infectious disease outbreaks pays attention to social factors related to causation, severity, rate and extent of spread, those dealing with the "social chaos" arising from outbreaks are usually neglected. Inclusion, by combining traditional public health with sociological analysis, will enrich public health theory and understanding of infectious disease outbreaks. Our approach will help develop better programs to combat outbreaks and equally important, to help survivors, their families, and their communities cope better with the aftermath.

The socio-economic distribution of exposure to Ebola: Survey evidence from Liberia and Sierra Leone

“…Since the West African outbreak, three Ebola outbreaks have already been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including one outbreak that at the time of the writing of this article had already become the second largest outbreak of the disease in history. A better understanding of the determinants of EVD exposure is therefore important not just to understand why the outbreak spread so widely and so quickly throughout West Africa but also from the perspective of preparing for future epidemics (Phua & Lee, 2005).…”

Design and methods of a social network isolation study for reducing respiratory infection transmission: The eX-FLU cluster randomized trial

“…For example, one might examine via simulation the effects of quarantine (the restriction of movement of individuals whom have been exposed to an infectious illness without signs of illness) rather than isolation. In general, there is a need for more work on examining the effects of behavior (for both susceptible and infected individuals) in mathematical epidemiology ( Funk et al, 2010 , Funk et al, 2015 , Phua and Lee, 2005 , Hayashi and Eisenberg, 2016 ) This study will provide a new resource for these efforts building on egocentric data on social mixing patterns that have been used in previous work ( Mossong et al, 2008 , Potter et al, 2011 , Hens et al, 2009 , Fu, 2005 , Mikolajczyk and Kretzschmar, 2008 ).…”

Diseases of Poverty: The Science of the Neglected

“…It is tragic, for instance that so much is made of the suffering of patients of neglected tropical diseases, but there is little if any evidence in the funded programmes that addresses how families and communities affected by these diseases could be supported to deal with the social and economic sequelae. Studies of outbreaks of infectious diseases in South East Asia also highlight the almost exclusive disease focus of public health interventions and the total neglect of the mental health and social and economic consequences of these interventions (described as social chaos) on the populations affected (57). To address these issues would require a more complex understanding of the community and its dynamics and the broader political context in which the affected populations live.…”