Publication

The economic and social burden of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Authored by:

Huber C, Finelli L, Stevens W

Full Citation:

Huber C, Finelli L, Stevens W 2018. The economic and social burden of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. JID. 22(5).

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Additional key concepts from this publication:

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have costly impacts on health systems and governments.

Key Evidence: In a 2018 study, researchers describe the devastating and far-reaching impacts of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including more than half a million people experiencing food insecurity, school closures lasting more than 7 months, tens of thousands of children orphaned, and a huge proportion of the health workforce killed by the disease, leading to infant, maternal, and child deaths due to a lack of skilled health workers and a 97% reduction in surgical capacity.

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have costly impacts on health systems and governments.

Key Evidence: In a comprehensive accounting of the costs of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Huber et al. estimate the economic and social costs to have been US$53 billion, of which US$18.8 billion was attributed to non-Ebola deaths.