posted by Tanya Schwarz
What is the role of economic (in)equality in local responses to Ebola? What are the economic consequences of the Ebola outbreak? Raymond Gilpin tackles these and other questions for African Arguments. He says,
Ebola is a complex global security emergency that demands much more than a focus on the virus, as we learn from theories of social epidemiology.
He argues that more attention needs to be paid to economic factors including the lack of health care facilities in rural areas as well as the “dire economic ramifications” of the outbreak.
One of the lessons of this Ebola outbreak is that countries that ignore pronounced inequality do so at their peril. Not only are such societies more fractured and unstable, they are also less resilient to socio-economic shocks. Investing in basic primary health care and education facilities protects rich and poor, urban and rural, men and women.
Read “Ebola, Economics, and Equality in Africa” in its entirety here.