Impact of Ebola on health systems in West Africa
It is no surprise that the Ebola outbreak devastated many lives and communities in West Africa, but it’s been over a year since the Ebola outbreak made mainstream media headlines. That must mean the Ebola virus no longer poses a threat to the countries in West Africa, right? According to an article recently published in The Public Health Journal, the consequences of the Ebola outbreak are far more severe than those of the outbreak itself.
At the start of the outbreak, the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia were already in a bad place. Riddled with political instability, high rates of poverty, and underdeveloped healthcare systems, these three countries were in no state to handle an epidemic. All in all, 11,000 people died as a direct consequence of the Ebola virus itself, and the outbreak was officially announced as “over” in January of 2016, not including several sporadic cases thereafter. In spite of this announcement, the consequences of Ebola continued to wreak havoc in these countries.
The authors of this article created a flow chart describing these consequences, breaking them down into three main categories: health system impact, social impact, and economic impact. For obvious reasons, the health care systems in each of these countries suffered severe blows. First of all, many healthcare workers died from the virus thus decreasing the health worker capacity in a period of much-needed demand. Many facilities were forced to close due to this as well as a lack of resources. This unreliability led to a distrust of the healthcare system and an overall decrease in healthcare utilization, especially in regards to maternal delivery care, malaria treatments, and vaccinations. Because of this social tension, socioeconomic impacts arose as a result. Fewer children received an education, crime rates increased, employment decreased, and malnutrition turned widespread as food became scarce. Overall, an increase in mortality and morbidity was reported due to these many unmet population necessities as well as intense psychological stress from the virus.
What does this say about public health and its role in underdeveloped communities? The article notes that it was “weaknesses in healthcare information systems that contributed to the delay in detection of the outbreak and therefore its extent.” Let the Ebola outbreak and its consequences serve as a humbling reminder: had West African countries been able to access a reliable and supportive healthcare system, the Ebola virus may not have spread in the first place.
For more information, the full article can be viewed here: http://www.publichealthjrnl.com/article/S0033-3506(16)30322-5/fulltext.