Ebola terrified us a year ago. What did it teach us about West Africa?

WASHINGTON POST  by Ashoka Mukpo *                                         Aug. 7,  2015                      

“If it bleeds, it leads.” That’s the cliché in journalism that describes why a certain kind of tragedy tends to dominate the news cycle. One year ago today, the World Health Organization declared Ebola an “international health emergency.” But today, coverage of West Africa is beginning its drift into media disinterest as Ebola cases wane. International attention has now largely disappeared along with the sight of biohazard suits and ambulances.....

But it would be a mistake to celebrate victory over Ebola and return to the pre-outbreak status quo. The lessons of Ebola reach beyond the preparedness of West African health systems to confront crises, touching on issues that have been critical for the region in recent years: peace, security and how responsive governments are to society’s most vulnerable members. These lessons must be understood before a post-outbreak aid and development agenda is designed....

Years of coping with entrenched corruption, unaccountable officials and a snail’s-pace “development” process that many believe primarily profits elites had eroded the public trust so deeply that even dire warnings about Ebola’s lethality were seen as a cynical attempt to solicit and “eat” international donations. Attitudes changed only after people saw Ebola for themselves.

In a new report just released by the peace-building and research organization International Alert, the perceptions of Liberians from Ebola-affected areas are analyzed through survey data and interviews. The goal was to understand the impacts of the crisis on Liberian citizens, and how they view their government 12 years after the end of the country’s civil war.

* Ashoka Mukpo is a journalist and researcher who worked with a Liberian civil society organization on accountability campaigns before the Ebola outbreak. While covering the crisis, he contracted Ebola and was treated in the United States.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/08/07/ebolas-rapid-spread-terrified-us-a-year-ago-what-did-it-teach-us-about-west-africa/

Read International Alert study:

by Ashoka Mukpo

http://www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/Liberia_SurvivingEbola_EN_2015.pdf