Ebola Treatment and Prevention are not the only Battles: Understanding Ebola-related Fear and Stigma

Although Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) had already taken hundreds of lives in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, it was only declared an ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ in early August when the world started to panic from the possibility of EVD getting out of African borders - a fear that was spreading much faster than the virus itself (1,2). The underlying causes of this fear, however, go far behind the uncertainties surrounding EVD’s pathogenesis and could stem from the past (3). The western perception of associating West Africa with deadly diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and EVD, and representing the region as white man’s grave is not just fueled by superstition or ignorance and has roots in history (3,4). For instance, the yellow fever outbreak in Liberia in the 20s that led to the loss of several prominent American and British medical researchers and instructors, has left the West with painful memories of the region (3).