The Ebola epidemic, which devastated West Africa in 2014, cost the economy at about $ 53 billion. This result is from a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.



The authors of the report combined the direct economic burden and indirect social impact, thus calculating the complex costs of the worst epidemic of Ebola in the world.

The incidence of bleeding fever lasted from 2013 to 2016 and killed at least 11,300 people, in what to be known as the most serious epidemic of Ebola in medical history. Most cases occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The study's authors have estimated economic losses of about $ 14 billion and claim that the losses stemming from mortality are much higher. Sums have been estimated by the number of people affected and an amount corresponding to the value of human life.

Experts, however, have calculated an amount from a single study from West Africa that estimates the value of human life in Sierra Leone at $ 577,000.

The overall estimate is so much higher than originally predicted. The World Bank estimated economic losses of $ 2.8 billion in 2016.

A new study, in its calculations, took into account the impact on health professionals, the long-term conditions of around 17,000 people who survived the epidemic and the cost of their treatment, monitoring, and deployment of staff outside of West Africa.

Part of the cost that was previously not included in the total amount stems from the cost of the victims of other illnesses. They make up a total of $ 18.8 billion.

During the Ebola epidemic, 10,623 HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria patients were reported by health workers. Approximately 3.5 million cases of malaria weren't treated and another 2000 to 16,000 deaths was caused by measles.


What threat does the world face and how quickly does a fatal epidemic spread?


The world has diminished, according to recent studies, one can get home from anywhere in the world in 36 hours. It also means that within 36 years any new disease can spread across the world. It describes the world situation of The Conservation.

The Spanish flu broke out in 1918 and it took two years to spread around the world. HIV/AIDS occurred in Africa in the 1960's, however, the epidemic only burst in the 1980's.

SARS spread from Asia to Canada, MERS came from Saudi Arabia to South Korea, and from Africa, along with tourists, humanitarian workers got Ebola.

So far, many epidemics have been prevented by given the increasing resistance of antibiotic. It is only a matter of time when a worldwide epidemic will erupt because most of the epidemic is man-made and as usual, the World Health Organization sound the alarm but has never confirmed in medical history which epidemic is natural and man-made.

Read further: https://www.modernghana.com/news/893723/how-the-ebola-epidemic-in-west-africa-cost-the-economy-53-bi.html

Photo: A victim of Ebola