Lessons From Ebola Affected Communities

This report is written by Polygeia and commissioned by the Africa APPG with fieldwork funding from the Royal African Society. The Ebola crisis in West Africa demonstrated clearly how vulnerable
the region was to rampant disease. Robust health systems, available at the point of need, were simply not there. There was little ability among the populations to pay. In the circumstances the responses from community health workers, local health systems and the people themselves were, in many cases, remarkable and totally selfless.By January 20th 2016, an Ebola epidemic in West Africa had killed 11,316 people. It had begun over two years before in Guinea and exposed under-resourced and over-burdened health systems in the affected countries. The international response was weak. However the UK played a key role by providing Sierra Leone with £427m worth of medical, technical and logistical support largely through the Department for
International Development. These funds were given to the Sierra Leone government, front-line NGOs and other vital actors and used to support a range of research.