Socio-Economic Determinants of Ebola Outbreak Intensity and Severity: A Study of the West-African Outbreak in 2013-2016

Sammanfattning: This study uses a specifically constructed sub-national dataset on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak cases, deaths, and CFR in order to look at the question of how important various socio-economic factors were in determining the intensity and severity of the 2013-2016 EVD outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The results of the OLS model shows that the socio-economic conditions in different regions of the country were important indicators of the number of reported cases and deaths. When looking at the Case Fatality Rate (CFR), the effect of socio-economic conditions becomes blurred as it is also mixed with the actions taken and the effectiveness of the response to the outbreak. The findings are in line with previous findings within the literature which looked at outbreaks of highly infectious diseases across history