1 - Ebola: The Plague of 2014/2015

Summary

The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa was an unprecedented epidemic of a highly fatal infection. Unexpectedly, after 12 months it was still raging, taking more than two years to control. It threatened international borders, dominated headlines and evoked fear around the globe. A contagious viral disease that causes a fatal haemorrhagic fever, Ebola is publicly perceived as having the capacity to cause a ‘Plague’ of catastrophic consequences. Plagues historically have not discriminated; they have afflicted humans of all levels of society, having both immediate and long-term consequences. The aftermath has had significant influences on public health, medicine, education, communication, societal practices, national economies, as well as cultural and religious beliefs.

The 2014/2015 outbreak was the largest epidemic caused by a Filovirus such as Ebola, since Zaire ebolavirus was first identified in the 1970s. Having infected over 28,000 persons in West Africa it was slow to be recognised and contained. Unfortunately, resolving this epidemic was difficult and protracted, taking two years because of the unexpected appearance of late cases, some without links to someone with clinical disease. This created apprehension in the countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia; nations which were economically and socially anxious that the epidemic was officially declared over.

This was a plague of modern times and revealed a number of unexpected outcomes. It changed paradigms not only in our understanding of this disease but also how new vaccines, medicines and diagnostic technologies could be fast-tracked, and changed how international responses to global infectious disease threats could be handled better in the future. This epidemic impacted on the small village communities as well as large urban centres. It changed practices and local perceptions of infectious diseases, re-established the critical importance of basic health infrastructure and highlighted the crippling impact that such gripping infectious diseases have on the struggling economies of developing countries.

Ebola: The Most Feared Contagion

In central Africa Ebola viruses are known to periodically strike remote villages, causing a terrifying haemorrhagic fever with high mortality. Unexpectedly in December 2013, at a distance of 3000 km west of the known heartland of Ebola in Central Africa, an outbreak of a mysterious disease began to spread, extracting a terrifying toll and killing many.