Flattening the Curve: Voluntary Association Participation and the 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola Epidemic
Résumé
To what extent does voluntary association participation correlate with reduced Ebola duration in districts across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone during the 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic? In this first cross-national quantitative study of Ebola outcomes across the three countries with nearly all the Ebola cases globally, I investigate how social capital influences epidemic outcomes. The epidemic struck along the border of three countries with similar health indicators, human development indicators, as well as cultural practices yet resulted in different outcomes. In this article, I examine the role of social trust, political trust, voluntary association participation, religious organization membership, and community meeting attendance in explaining international policy failure to reduce Ebola outcomes. Overall, in districts with a culture of raising issues and participating in voluntary and religious organizations, Ebola duration rates were lower.