Fighting Ebola requires a culture change in the west, as well as west Africa

COMMENTARY: Only by turning our response to Ebola upside down can another epidemic be avoided: communities need to be front and centre to eradicate this disease

THE GUARDIAN by  David Miliband and Peter Piot                     March 3, 2015

Today in Brussels African political leaders and experts will meet to discuss how west Africa should be supported to respond to the Ebola catastrophe that has killed nearly 10,000 people.

There has been a significant improvement in the situation, with fewer than 150 cases a week instead of the thousands at the height of the latest outbreak. But we are concerned by the dangerous mismatch between perceptions and the reality of the situation. Unless this is addressed, we risk a repetition....

These misconceptions could have been avoided if we had heeded the lessons of previous Ebola epidemics in central Africa. Those outbreaks were stopped by an early response, along with an intense collaboration between public health workers and affected communities. The current Ebola epidemic may be larger and more urban, and have global repercussions.

But for all those differences, the basic lessons of previous epidemics still applied. The epidemic grew in part because of the lack of trust that rural and urban communities had in the institutions meant to protect them. The epidemic was stopped in places such as Kenema district in Sierra Leone, and Lofa county in Liberia, when local people were treated as trusted and active partners, not passive victims or even potential enemies.

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/03/ebola-culture-change-west-africa-communities