Community-Based Crisis Response: Evidence from Sierra Leone's Ebola Outbreak

摘要

In September 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) described West Africa's Ebola epidemic as "the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a biosafety level four pathogen infected so many people, so quickly, over such a broad geographic area, for so long."1 At that point, fewer than 7,000 individuals had been infected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that by the end of the crisis in early 2016, there were more than 28,000 confirmed, suspected, or probable cases; 11,300 deaths; US$3.5 billion spent on response efforts; and US$2 billion lost in economic activity.2 Sierra Leone accounts for roughly half of those cases and just under 4,000 deaths.