Public Health Governance in African Border Regions and Sustainable Development: A Study of Ebola Control in Gueckedou District of Guinea, 2014-15
Presenter's country
Nigeria
Start Date
28-5-2016 9:30 AM
End Date
28-5-2016 10:30 AM
Location
Hall I
Submission type
Presentation
Abstract
While borderlands are hotspots of intra-regional commerce, they also constitute strategic locations for microbial transmission as exemplified by the case of Gueckedou District of Guinea – the source of the 2014 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa. Whereas the study of EVD outbreak and control abounds in the literature, there is the dearth of scholarly writings on the implications of public health governance in borderlands and its attendant effects on disease processes and sustainable development in Africa. Indeed, the 2014/2015 EVD outbreak that began in the Gueckedou borderland of Guinea obstructed socioeconomic progress and sustainable development – limiting productivity, investment, tourism and confidence in the West African economy as well as endangering human security in the region. It is against this background that this paper examines the pattern of public health policies in the Gueckedou District of Guinea and its impacts on EVD transmission and control in West Africa. As this case shows that the under-representation of the state in African borderlands manifests in poor public health governance in these nodes of regional commerce thereby undermining disease control measures and regional development. The approach is descriptive based on the critical analysis of government documents, reports of Non-Governmental Organizations as well as the literature. It concludes that public-private partnership should be redirected to address social and environmental conditions that influence health in African border regions.
Keywords
Ebola Epidemic, Public Health Governance, Sustainable Development, Transborder Epidemiology, West Africa
Public Health Governance in African Border Regions and Sustainable Development: A Study of Ebola Control in Gueckedou District of Guinea, 2014-15
Hall I
While borderlands are hotspots of intra-regional commerce, they also constitute strategic locations for microbial transmission as exemplified by the case of Gueckedou District of Guinea – the source of the 2014 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa. Whereas the study of EVD outbreak and control abounds in the literature, there is the dearth of scholarly writings on the implications of public health governance in borderlands and its attendant effects on disease processes and sustainable development in Africa. Indeed, the 2014/2015 EVD outbreak that began in the Gueckedou borderland of Guinea obstructed socioeconomic progress and sustainable development – limiting productivity, investment, tourism and confidence in the West African economy as well as endangering human security in the region. It is against this background that this paper examines the pattern of public health policies in the Gueckedou District of Guinea and its impacts on EVD transmission and control in West Africa. As this case shows that the under-representation of the state in African borderlands manifests in poor public health governance in these nodes of regional commerce thereby undermining disease control measures and regional development. The approach is descriptive based on the critical analysis of government documents, reports of Non-Governmental Organizations as well as the literature. It concludes that public-private partnership should be redirected to address social and environmental conditions that influence health in African border regions.