The Political Economy of the Ebola Virus Disease

Abstract

Public health has much to contribute to the global understanding and action on the past, present and future of Ebola but it is currently constrained by the construction of the ‘risk’ of catching Ebola. There has been a consequential emphasis on ‘health systems’, which has deflected attention from social alienation and implosion of social ties at the family, community, national and regional levels, instead justifying a colonial top-down response strategy. Indeed, that neglects class and social relations. It follows that the response strategy has reinforced social barriers that stand in the way of the development of social medicine, collective self-reliance in Africa, empowering social ties, social protection and socially inclusive development. What is needed, then, is not public health but critical postcolonial public health to pull down these impediments and develop socially sensitive alternatives that prioritise social relations and ties, inclusivity of diversity and complexity in African societies.