Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T01:02:39.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rising to the Challenge: The Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone and How Insights Into One Nongovernmental Organization’s Response Can Inform Future Core Competencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2015

Elin A. Gursky
Elin A. Gursky*
Affiliation:
Analytic Services Inc, Falls Church, Virginia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Elin A. Gursky, Analytic Services Inc, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Suite N-5000, Falls Church, VA 22041 (e-mail: [email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a critical humanitarian role in the developing world. Over 100 NGOs currently operate in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa that ranks 183 out of 187 in the United Nation’s Human Development Index. Following a brutal 11-year war that ended in January 2002, the country has been unsuccessful at building a sufficiently resourced, robust, and anticipatory public health and medical care infrastructure. Consequently, Sierra Leone suffers from high levels of poverty, infant mortality, and limited access to safe drinking water, as well as morbidity from malnutrition, diarrheal diseases, hepatitis A, cholera, and typhoid fever. Large international NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders have attempted to fill the void left by fragile and fragmented government health services but have been overwhelmed and saturated by the continual spread of Ebola virus disease and growing numbers of cases and deaths. Smaller NGOs endeavored to assist during this crisis as well. One of them, Caritas, has actively sought public health knowledge and has applied public health principles to reduce and contain Ebola virus disease transmission. The Ebola outbreak illuminates the importance of building basic public health capabilities within the core competences of NGOs.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:554–557)

Keywords

nongovernmental organizationsEbola viruspublic health competenciescommunicable diseases
Type
Concepts in Disaster Medicine
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 9 , Issue 5 , October 2015 , pp. 554 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Human Development Reports. 2014; Human Development Reports: Data. United Nations Development Programme website. http://hdr.undp.org/en/data. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
2. The World Bank. World Development Indicators: Sierra Leone. World Bank website. http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators. Accessed August 6, 2015.Google Scholar
3. Nossiter, A. Sierra Leone’s health care system becomes a cautionary tale for donors. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/world/africa/sierra-leone-graft-charges-imperil-care-and-aid.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Published April 13, 2013. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
4. Jang, SY. The causes of the Sierra Leone civil war: underlying grievances and the role of the Revolutionary United Front. E-International Relations Students website. http://www.e-ir.info/2012/10/25/the-causes-of-the-sierra-leone-civil-war-underlying-grievances-and-the-role-of-the-revolutionary-united-front/. Published October 25, 2012. Accessed February 15, 2015.Google Scholar
5. British Red Cross. Health care in Sierra Leone. British Red Cross website. http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Health-and-social-care/Health-issues/Community-healthcare/Healthcare-in-Sierra-Leone. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
6. Health in Sierra Leone. Wikipedia website. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Sierra_Leone. February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
7. Sierra Leone. World Health Organization website. http://who.int/countries/sle/en/. Accessed June 15, 2015.Google Scholar
8. Doctor to Patient Ratio in Africa (By Country, 2006). Africapedia website. www.africapedia.com. Accessed June 11, 2015.Google Scholar
9. At a Crossroads: Sierra Leone’s Free Health Care Policy. Amnesty International. https://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/sierral_maternaltrpt_0.pdf. Published 2011. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
10. Definition of NGOs. NGO Global Network website. http://www.ngo.org/ngoinfo/define.html. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
11. List of charities and NGOs in Sierra Leone. All Sierra Leone information website. http://all-sierra-leone-information.2284971.n4.nabble.com/List-of-Charities-and-NGOs-in-Sierra-Leone-td3380530.html. Published March 15, 2011. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
12. Caritas website. http://www.caritas.org. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
13. Ebola in Sierra Leone. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/ebola-sierra-leone. Updated October 7, 2014. Accessed October 9, 2014.Google Scholar
14. Fofana, U, Flynn, D. Sierra Leone “hero” doctor’s death exposes slow Ebola response. Reuters website. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/24/us-health-ebola-khan-insight-idUSKBN0GO07M20140824. Published August 24, 2014. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
15. Roy-Macaulay, C, Corey-Boulet, R. Sierra Leone concludes nationwide Ebola lockdown. AP website. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/sierra-leone-reaches-final-day-of-ebola-lock. September 21, 2014. Accessed August 6, 2015.Google Scholar
16. Burkle, FM. Operationalizing public health skills to resource poor settings: is this the Achilles heel in the Ebola epidemic campaign? J Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2014;Oct 7:1-3 [Epub ahead of print].Google Scholar
17. The Sphere Project. Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response. United Kingdom: Practical Action Publishing; 2011; http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/. Accessed October 9, 2014.Google Scholar
18. Shanks, L. Why humanitarian aid became professional: the experience of [Médecins Sans Frontières]. Journal of Humanitarian Assistance. http://sites.tufts.edu/jha/archives/2084. Published September 23, 2014. Accessed October 9, 2014.Google Scholar
19. Gursky, EA, Burkle, FM, Hamon, DW, et al. The changing face of crises and aid in the Asia-Pacific. Biosecur Bioterror. 2014;12(6):310-317.Google Scholar
20. Testimony of Ishmeal Alfred Charles. Joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on the Ebola threat in West Africa. http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/webcast/joint-hearing-ebola-west-africa-global-challenge-and-public-health-threat. September 16, 2014. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
21. WHO Ebola Response Team. Ebola virus disease in West Africa—The first 9 months of the epidemic and forward projections. N Engl J Med. 2014;371:1481-1495. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1411100.Google Scholar
22. CDC and Texas Health Department confirm first Ebola case diagnosed in the U.S. [press release]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/s930-ebola-confirmed-case.html. Published September 30, 2014. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar
23. Ebola outbreak: Nurse infected in Spain. BBC website. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29514920. Published October 6, 2014. Accessed February 16, 2015.Google Scholar