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To combat epidemics, local people need to be more involved and respected, Ursula Jasper said. This is one of the lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
Health workers in protective gear, critically ill patients in makeshift makeshift halls, armed soldiers imposing curfews – many of us still remember the dramatic and powerful images of the l? Ebola epidemic on television in West Africa in 2014. In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, 30,000 people became ill and 11,000 died as a result of the epidemic. The epidemic, which the World Health Organization seriously underestimated in the beginning, has hit the hardest of three of the world's poorest countries. With their health care systems and infrastructure decimated by many years of civil war, the number of health workers and resources needed to provide adequate primary care was far too short, even in times of crisis. The current situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is similar. Constant and relentless clashes make the fight against Ebola extremely difficult.
What is clear is that local health care needs to be radically improved and international cooperation intensified if one does not want to remain helpless in the face of a new epidemic of highly contagious pathogen. And as infectious diseases spread across national boundaries, regional actors need to cooperate more effectively. Several steps in the right direction have already been made in West Africa. For example, after the Ebola crisis of 2014, the West African Health Organization was strengthened and a regional center for disease control was established in Abuja, Nigeria. Such an initiative is crucial as it facilitates the early detection of epidemics and enhances regional cooperation.
Taking into account culture and customs
In addition to these long-term institutional measures, there is another area of action, directly underestimated, directly accessible to people and having a considerable influence on the spread of the disease: the communication of risks and crises. As experience with previous health crises has shown, it is often difficult to accurately badess risks and hazards and change the behavior of the affected population to reduce the personal risk of infection and transmission.
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, for example, there was not enough to explain measures such as "contact tracing" and to understand and take into account concerns, fears, culture and customs of the local population. The search for contacts is an essential measure to contain an epidemic; it is necessary to identify people who may have been in contact with an infected person, to inform them of a possible infection and to provide them with medical care if necessary.
Proactive, proactive and forward-looking communication on health and crisis risks is also essential as rumors and misinformation spread particularly rapidly in crisis situations. However, in many countries, health authorities have not yet developed the strategies and means to identify and correct misinformation quickly through a variety of means.
Use digital technologies
While I was in Nigeria last summer for a two month research stay, I was aware of a project led by GIZ, the German Development Agency. , with ECOWAS. It aims to strengthen communication on risks and crises in the region.
It is interesting to note that this is not only about setting up structures at the national and regional levels, but also about involving the local population in a targeted way. For example, the project is organizing "hackathons", programming competitions involving teams of IT developers, health and communication experts, to develop applications and websites that provide information on risks to the community. health and prevention measures, and can mobilize the population in the event of a crisis.
The project is taking advantage of the sharp increase in the number of mobile phone users and the Internet in the region in recent years. At the same time, such bottom-up participatory approach provides a better understanding of the needs, concerns and skills of the local population and aligns the content and design of communication materials accordingly.
This is a lesson from the Ebola crisis that does not apply only to West Africa: containing a serious communicable disease is more than just a medical and logistical challenge. Such an enterprise can only succeed if the local population trusts health authorities and local organizations, and if they, in turn, respect the social and cultural context.
Editor's note: this article was originally published by ETH Zurich and republished here with permission.
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