Cultural effects of the Western African Ebola virus epidemic

For instance, many West African communities rely on traditional healers and witch doctors, who use herbal remedies, massage, chant and witchcraft to cure just about any ailment.

According to the Wesley Medical Center, these sorts of traditional norms can be dangerous to those not infected with the virus as it increases their chances of coming in contact with their family member's bodily fluids.

[2] In Liberia, Ebola has wiped out entire families, leaving perhaps one survivor to recount stories of how they simply could not be hands off while their loved ones were sick in bed, because of their culture of touch, hold, hug and kiss.

[5][6] This initial misinformation increased the general distrust in foreigners, and the idea that Ebola was not in Africa before their arrival led to attacks on many health workers, as well as blockages of aid convoys blocked from checking remote areas.

[9] The Ebola epidemic of 2014 has forced West Africans to face numerous difficulties on a daily basis regarding their traditional norms and practices.

[citation needed] Specifically, funerals are considered to be major cultural events for families and friends to gather around to celebrate the deceased.

More importantly, there is a common bowl used for ritual hand washing towards the end of the ceremony, including a final kiss or touch on the face, which is to be bestowed on the dead.

Specifically, it is believed that the dead person's spirit, also known as "tibo," will cause harm and bring illness to the family as a result of an improper burial.

[2] Due to the mistrust, Ebola-stricken communities in Liberia reportedly hid family members with Ebola from health care providers and held secret burials.

[3] Resistance to Western medicine exists also because of the look of the hazmat suits, which are worn by healthcare workers to protect themselves from becoming infected with the Ebola virus.

[2] Regardless of the existing resistance towards Western medicine, handling the bodies of the deceased poses a high risk of contagion as Ebola is contracted through physical contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.

Traditional procedures include the following: magic, biomedical methods, fasting, dieting, herbal therapies, bathing, massage, as well as surgery.

[2] Despite the severe distrust of Africans in modern medicine, the Ebola virus has been said to spread rampantly across West Africa due to a shortage of healthcare workers and limited medical resources and facilities.

The fact that the city of Freetown has been completely abandoned is foreign to the student, because the nation is and has always been heavily reliant on physical contact and very close interaction.

[citation needed] As of October 2014, the Ebola virus had not reached her home-town back in Sierra Leone; however, she said that her family still living in the country claimed that Freetown did not "feel like the same place" anymore.

[11] The Ebola virus, for which the primary host is suspected to be fruit bats, has been linked to bushmeat, which is commonly consumed in areas of West Africa that use it as a protein source.

Hunters usually shoot, net, scavenge or catapult their prey, and butcher the bats without gloves, getting bites or scratches and coming in contact with their blood.

[17] The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that between 30 and 80 percent of protein intake in rural households in Central Africa comes from wild meat.

[79] In July 2014, the Liberian Football Association made an announcement that all soccer related activities would be put on hold "indefinitely to protect players and fans.

[87] Even after calls to have the 2015 AFCON postponed, the Equatorial Guinea government and CAF organisers have downplayed these concerns, and insisted that they would have ample measures in place, including: [citation needed] On 7 August 2014, a social media hoax message was doing the rounds in Nigeria.

On 8 October 2014, US Airways flight 845 from Philadelphia to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic was held up for two hours on the tarmac when an American passenger sneezed, then announced "I have Ebola.

After landing, he was escorted off the plane by four emergency personnel wearing blue hazmat suits, and detained until medical tests cleared him.

The passenger was arrested, and later pleaded guilty to "engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behavior on an airplane contrary to the Air Navigation and Transport Act", and was fined 2500 euros.