Ebola: the Catalyst for Sierra Leone’s Economic Recession
The Ebola virus is one of the recent viruses that have emerged and killed many people in the world; it causes severe internal bleeding, organ failure, and even death if not treated. Its most infamous case was during 2014-2015 when West Africa was decimated by an Ebola outbreak that killed over 10,000 people. Specifically, the outbreak was focused in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. This crisis closed down borders, decreased trade, and made tourism decline due to stigma on Ebola-affected areas. In Sierra Leone, a small country on the west coast of Africa, the death toll caused by Ebola also influenced the rise of unemployment, closure of schools, decline of international business, and
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The fear of Ebola made many tourists and international workers refuse to come to Sierra Leone, which contributed to them losing 920 million USD in 2015. For instance, Ernest Bai Koroma, the previous president of Sierra Leone, stated that tourism suffered a decline of 30 percent from May to September of 2014 (“Sierra Leone”). To add on, Sama Forna-King, a Sierra Leonean, stated that the country heavily relied on tourism revenue (Wilkerson). As Ebola killed thousands of people in Sierra Leone, many tourists did not travel there in fear of contracting the disease. This resulted in the travel industry suffering significantly, and the country’s GDP further declined with the loss of an essential component of their national income. Additionally, the national reputation was negatively impacted, and as fewer people desired to move to live in Sierra Leone, the harder it was for the economy to recover. Without more laborers coming in from abroad to work, the workforce got smaller; consequently, the national income was not able to break even with the national expenditures, building more and more debt for the country. Furthermore, Sierra Leone’s high number of casualties and cases from Ebola forced former president, Ernest Bai Koroma, to block off all travel from the nation, negatively impacting trade and harming the economy even more. Koroma declared a state of emergency and had his troops quarantine areas Ebola had affected, restricting travel (“Sierra Leone”). Closing down travel in airports, train stations, ports, and other modes of transportation prevented goods from being shipped to other countries for commerce. Without goods being able to be transferred to other countries for trade or vending, the national income was at one of its lows. Local markets and stores may not have been able to get the correct amount of goods that they needed, which forced their business decline, adding to their
Increased inexpensive imports led to business failures, bank closures, and unemployment in cities. Britain ended The War of 1812 with America and trade increases. Britain’s industrial capacity exceeded Americas’.5 Britain then exported its surplus of manufactured goods to America. U.S. factories could not compete with Europe’s low labor costs and low price of goods. American imports rose from $12.9 million in 1814 to $151 million in 1816. Businesses were forced to close.
"In the 1970s and 1980s Sierra Leone had a thriving tourism industry,” says Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the UK, after his trip to Sierra Leone. Later, however, the economy began staggering to a halt, and a new group rose to power with what many believed were strong and good willed beliefs.
In the New York Times interview of Richard Preston, the well renowned author of The Hot Zone, is conducted in order to shed some light on the recent Ebola outbreak and the peaked re-interest in his novel. The Hot Zone is articulated as “thriller like” and “horrifying.” Preston uses similar diction and style choices corresponding with his novel. By choosing to use these specific methods he is advertising and promoting The Hot Zone to the audience members that are interested in reading, and reaching out to those who read and enjoyed his novel. He continuously grabs and keeps the reader’s attention by characterizing and personifying Ebola as the “enemy [and] the invisible monster without a face” in order to give the spectators something to grasp and understand the Ebola virus. Along with characterization, Preston uses descriptions with laminate
The Great Depression of the 1930s led to prevention of imports because of declined foreign sales in most Latin American countries. This resulted to an automatic production of domestic products to meet their needs. Thereafter, various tariffs imposed favored local production. Import substitution was successful in countries with large populations who could provide market while small countries like Honduras could not implement it fully due to shortage of market. In countries where the import substitution was successful, Governments changed from neocolonial to democratic, nationalization of banks and some foreign companies or even ownership by local business people. Industrial output grew to support growing populations in these
Priscilla. “The World Economy and Africa.” JSpivey – Home – Wikispaces. 2010. 29 January 2010. .
Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years ago, it still remains as a fear among African citizens, where the virus has reappeared occasionally in parts of the continent. In fact, and outbreak of the Ebola virus has been reported in Kampala, Uganda just recently, and is still a problem to this very day. Ebola causes severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and monkeys, and has a 90 % fatality rate. Though there is no cure for the disease, researchers have found limited medical possibilities to help prevent one from catching this horrible virus.
The Ebola Virus is an extremely deadly virus found in Africa. There have been multiple outbreaks across Africa and one in the United States. The Ebola virus basically causes uncontrollable bleeding externally and internally. Then your organs become liquefied. This usually results in death(www.encyclopedia.com). The following report contains info on the characteristics and history of the Ebola Virus.
The Ebola virus was discovered in 1976. It has four strains, each from a different geographic area, but all give their victims the same painful, often lethal symptoms.
The AIDS epidemic has reached disastrous proportions on the continent of Africa. Over the past two decades, two thirds of the more than 16 million people in the world infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, live in sub-Saharan Africa. It is now home to the largest number of people infected, with 70 percent of the world’s HIV-infected population. The problem with this ongoing human tragedy is that Africa is also the least equipped region in the world to cope with all the challenges posed by the HIV virus. In order to understand the social and economic consequences of the disease, it is important to study the relationship between poverty, the global response, and the effectiveness of AIDS prevention, both government and grassroots.
...1976, scientists have not developed a complete understanding of the virus, such as it’s natural reservoir. The non-specific symptoms make it difficult to clinically diagnose, though there are laboratory tests that can be done to help diagnose patients. Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever also spreads quickly and easily, especially in hospitals where the proper safety precautions are not taken. Thankfully, scientists and doctors have made a successful vaccination that worked on monkeys and are working on one that will work on humans, hopefully helping decrease the dangerously high death rate and help save many people that may one day become infected.
Over the course of history, illnesses and pandemics have had a tremendous economic impact. Economic historians often struggle to calculate the economic impact of these events however, due to the lack of accurate records. The exception is the flu epidemic of 1918, which had a long lasting and significant impact on the world economy. In a ten month period stretching from late 1918 into early 1919, over 40 million people worldwide died as a result of the flu epidemic, about 4% of the world’s population. In comparison, the AIDS epidemic has killed 25 million people since 1981.
In 1976 the first two Ebola outbreaks were recorded. In Zaire and western Sudan five hundred and fifty people reported the horrible disease. Of the five hundred and fifty reported three hundred and forty innocent people died. Again in 1995 Ebola reportedly broke out in Zaire, this time infecting over two hundred and killing one hundred and sixty. (Bib4, Musilam, 1)
According to the World Health Organization, the reason why there are many Ebola outbreaks in West Africa is because they have “very weak health systems, lacking human and infrastructural resources, having only recently emerged from long periods of conflict and instability.” A hum...
...at development. Roads are not well developed in some parts of Africa which increase the transportation cost. Public investors are also not taking interest due to high cost of paved roads in Africa. The accident rate is also increasing as driving license is not compulsory for motorcycles. Health care facilities are also very less in Africa, which leads to deaths due to accidents and diseases. Less health workers, poverty, transportation problems all lead to less health care facilities which result in increase of death rates in Africa.
...ile the pandemic will absolutely leverage the rate of financial development, structural alterations are furthermore expected to be one of the prime economic hallmarks of the AIDS pandemic (Arndt 427-449). The effect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic can be visualized by the overwhelming change in mortality rate of South Africans. The yearly number of mortalities from HIV increased distinctly between the years 1997, when about 316,559 people died, and 2006 when an estimated 607,184 people died ("HIV AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA"). Those who are currently assuming the burden of the increase in mortality rate are adolescents and young adults. Virtually one-in-three females of ages 25-29, and over 25% of males aged 30-34, are currently living with HIV in South Africa (UNAIDS). The good news, thanks to better supply of ARV treatment, is that life-expectancy has risen vastly since 2005.