1. Ebola’s Beginnings in Liberia: Sept-Nov 2014
Introduction
Findings/Results
The World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of an Ebola outbreak in Guinea on March 23, By September 14, a total of 4,507 probable and confirmed cases, including 2296 deaths from Ebola were reported from five West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone). (1)
As of November 2, Liberia had the largest number of reported cases, 6,525, and deaths, 2,697 amongst Guinea, and Sierra Leone, the other two affected West African countries with ongoing transmission.
Liberia faced major inadequacies in public health and within the medical care system even prior to the outbreak, only having 50 doctors for a population of 4.3 million (2). Often, the medical equipment was reused and the virus was spread so easily because many were amongst the public, carrying it. (2).
Analysis
Hypothesis
Figure 1: Map of Liberia showing confirmed deaths from Ebola between September and November 2014, and locations of lacks of health facilities, roads, and lastly refugee camps.
From these maps, it is evident that the most densely populated areas and major towns in Liberia were hit the hardest within the Ebola epidemic, having confirmed deaths between 259 and 1588 between September and November. Being in close proximity within a poor health care system lefts victims often helpless and waiting in long lines for treatment. Over the course of these months, Liberia added a number of Ebola clinics and conducted quarenteens in certain areas to minimize contagion. Additionally, those regions in Liberia hit the hardest were often fairly inaccessible. As shown, especially in the red regions, the main roads are often unpaved, indirect, and few in numbe, therefore making it difficult for medical care to reach their destination quickly and minimize the spread. Whereas in the yellow portions of the region with few confirmed deaths, those locations are less populated generally and also tended to have better infrastructure and roads as well as more of them generally. These maps assist in understanding why the spread of Ebola in Liberia was so devastating across the nation.
The severity of the death toll in Liberia is dependent upon the population’s access to health facilities, and roads. Additionally, the population density and proximity to refugee camps have to do with the greater number of both cases abd deaths of Ebola.
Data
I chose to study the Ebola outbreak in Liberia between September and November of I looked at Ebola Deaths during this period. Additionally I included locations of refugee camps, hospitals, roads and major towns. Lastly, I included data of population density.
Conclusion
Methods
Based on these maps, it can be concluded that Liberia developed one of the most disastrous Ebola Epidemics due to their large population in close proximity and the country’s lack of infrastructure including general public health practices and regulations, the inadequate medical system, and the road accessibility, .
I began by using ArcGIS web. My first map included specific layers such as a map of Liberia, Ebola Deaths by county, locations of health services, locations of refugee camps, and locations of riots and protests.
My second map included population density and major towns in Liberia.
Through these two maps side by side, a proper analysis can be draw as to answer questions regarding death rate and contagion rate of Ebola.
Note: if you click design > page set up, you can set the poster size. This poster has a 4:3 ratio, at 42’’ x 34’’ – the paper size limit for our plotter is 42’’ – so one of the dimensions of the paper is limited to this.
Figure 2: Map of Liberia demonstrating the population density as well as major towns in the country. This shows the concentration of people in the country and this has correlated with the severity of the Ebola outbreaks in particular regions of Liberia.
Bibliography
(1).WHO Ebola Response Team. “Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa — The First 9 Months of the Epidemic and Forward Projections.” The New England Journal of Medicine, 16 Oct Google Scholar ,
(2)Butler, Yvonne S. “Ebola Virus: Exposing the Inadequacies of Public Health in Liberia.” Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 1 Dec. 2014,
Alex Gilgorri