Ebola in urban slums: the elephant in the room.

/ / Faculty Research in Africa, Research

CGPH FACULTY: Lee Riley

DATE OF PUBLICATION: December 2014

REGION: Africa

REFERENCE: Snyder RE, Marlow MA, Riley LW. Ebola in urban slums: the elephant in the room.Lancet Glob Health. 2014 Dec;2(12):e685. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70339-0. Epub 2014 Oct 30.

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: A host of factors has been cited as causes of the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in west Africa: local cultural practices, poverty, inadequate health infrastructure, and the region’s recent strife-filled history. These factors alone, however, cannot completely explain the epidemic’s uncontrolled nature. There is an “elephant in the room” in the international discourse concerning this epidemic: urban informal human settlements or slums.

ACCESS: Link to Pubmed