Update on the Economic Impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

Update on the Economic Impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea PDF Author: Weltbankgruppe
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Languages : en
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The Ebola epidemic continues to cripple the economies of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The crisis is resulting in flat or negative income growth and creating large fiscal needs in all three countries, as they work to eradicate the virus. This update presents the World Bank s most recent analysis of the economic effects of the Ebola epidemic on the three countries. All three had been growing rapidly in recent years, and into the first half of 2014. But GDP growth estimates for 2014 have been revised sharply downward since pre-crisis estimates. Projected 2014 growth in Liberia is now 2.2 percent (versus 5.9 percent before the crisis and 2.5 percent in October). Projected 2014 growth in Sierra Leone is now 4.0 percent (versus 11.3 percent before the crisis and 8.0 percent in October). Projected 2014 growth in Guinea is now 0.5 percent (versus 4.5 percent before the crisis and 2.4 percent in October). The World Bank s October report on the economic impact of Ebola (report no. 91219 released at the 2014 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank) found that if the epidemic continues in the three worst-affected countries and spreads to neighboring countries, the two-year regional financial impact could range from a "low Ebola" estimate of $3.8 billion to a "high Ebola" estimate of $32.6 billion. These scale estimates of potential impact remain valid: the epidemic is not yet under control. Containment, combined with a full-fledged financial recovery effort to restart business activity and bring back investors, are now both therefore urgently needed for the region to improve on the downbeat forecasts in this update.

Update on the Economic Impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

Update on the Economic Impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea PDF Author: Weltbankgruppe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Ebola epidemic continues to cripple the economies of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The crisis is resulting in flat or negative income growth and creating large fiscal needs in all three countries, as they work to eradicate the virus. This update presents the World Bank s most recent analysis of the economic effects of the Ebola epidemic on the three countries. All three had been growing rapidly in recent years, and into the first half of 2014. But GDP growth estimates for 2014 have been revised sharply downward since pre-crisis estimates. Projected 2014 growth in Liberia is now 2.2 percent (versus 5.9 percent before the crisis and 2.5 percent in October). Projected 2014 growth in Sierra Leone is now 4.0 percent (versus 11.3 percent before the crisis and 8.0 percent in October). Projected 2014 growth in Guinea is now 0.5 percent (versus 4.5 percent before the crisis and 2.4 percent in October). The World Bank s October report on the economic impact of Ebola (report no. 91219 released at the 2014 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank) found that if the epidemic continues in the three worst-affected countries and spreads to neighboring countries, the two-year regional financial impact could range from a "low Ebola" estimate of $3.8 billion to a "high Ebola" estimate of $32.6 billion. These scale estimates of potential impact remain valid: the epidemic is not yet under control. Containment, combined with a full-fledged financial recovery effort to restart business activity and bring back investors, are now both therefore urgently needed for the region to improve on the downbeat forecasts in this update.

Update on the Economic Impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

Update on the Economic Impact of the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic on Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea PDF Author: World Bank Group
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Category : Electronic book
Languages : en
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The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic

The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic PDF Author: The World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464804222
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 109

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Book Description
Beyond the terrible toll in human lives and suffering, the Ebola epidemic currently afflicting West Africa is already having a measurable economic impact. This report provides a systematic analysis of the channels of economic impact and the likely magnitude of that impact for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, as well as West Africa as a whole.

The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa

The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309450063
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
The most recent Ebola epidemic that began in late 2013 alerted the entire world to the gaps in infectious disease emergency preparedness and response. The regional outbreak that progressed to a significant public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in a matter of months killed 11,310 and infected more than 28,616. While this outbreak bears some unique distinctions to past outbreaks, many characteristics remain the same and contributed to tragic loss of human life and unnecessary expenditure of capital: insufficient knowledge of the disease, its reservoirs, and its transmission; delayed prevention efforts and treatment; poor control of the disease in hospital settings; and inadequate community and international responses. Recognizing the opportunity to learn from the countless lessons of this epidemic, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in March 2015 to discuss the challenges to successful outbreak responses at the scientific, clinical, and global health levels. Workshop participants explored the epidemic from multiple perspectives, identified important questions about Ebola that remained unanswered, and sought to apply this understanding to the broad challenges posed by Ebola and other emerging pathogens, to prevent the international community from being taken by surprise once again in the face of these threats. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic

The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
Beyond the terrible toll in human lives and suffering, the Ebola epidemic currently afflicting West Africa is already having a measurable economic impact in terms of forgone output; higher fiscal deficits; rising prices; lower real household incomes and greater poverty. These economic impacts include the costs of healthcare and forgone productivity of those directly affected but, more importantly, they arise from the aversion behavior of others in response to the disease. As it is far from certain that the epidemic will be fully contained by December 2014 and in light of the considerable uncertainty about its future trajectory, two alternative scenarios are used to estimate the medium-term (2015) impact of the epidemic, extending to the end of calendar year 2015. A 'Low Ebola' scenario corresponds to rapid containment within the three most severely affected countries (henceforth the 'core three countries'), while 'High Ebola' corresponds to slower containment in the core three countries, with likely broader regional contagion. The take-away messages from this exercise are that the economic impacts are already certain to be serious in the core three countries, particularly Liberia and Sierra Leone, and could become catastrophic under a slow-containment, High Ebola scenario.

The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic

The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic PDF Author: Weltbankgruppe
Publisher:
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The 2014 outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa has taken a horrible human toll. Although the outbreak originated in rural Guinea, it has hit hardest in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in part because it has reached urban areas in these two countries, a factor that distinguishes this outbreak from previous episodes elsewhere. As of September 10, 2014, there had been 2,281 recorded deaths out of 4,614 suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola. Experts fear that the true numbers may be two to four times larger, due to underreporting. Misery and suffering have been intense, especially in Liberia where doctors have had to turning patients away for lack of space in Ebola treatment centers. Inevitably, before the outbreak is contained the human impacts will increase considerably over these numbers. Epidemiological estimates are acknowledged as highly uncertain and are not the subject of this note. What is certain is that limiting the human cost will require significant financial resources and a concerted partnership between international partners and the affected countries. Particularly in Liberia and Sierra Leone, government capacity is already overrun and the epidemic is impacting macroeconomic activity and budgetary resources. This note informs the response to the epidemic by estimating these macroeconomic and fiscal effects. Any such exercise is necessarily highly imprecise due to limited data and many uncertain factors, but it is still necessary in order to plan the economic assistance that must accompany the immediate humanitarian response. The goal is to help affected countries to recover and return to the robust economic growth they had experienced until the offset of this crisis.

Understanding West Africas Ebola Epidemic

Understanding West Africas Ebola Epidemic PDF Author: Ibrahim Abdullah
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1786991713
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
From 2013 to 2015, over 11,000 people across West Africa lost their lives to the deadliest outbreak of the Ebola virus in history. Crucially, this epidemic marked the first time the virus was able to spread beyond rural areas to major cities, overturning conventional assumptions about its epidemiology. With backgrounds ranging from development to disease control, the contributors to this volume - some of them based in countries affected by the Ebola epidemic - consider the underlying factors that shaped this unprecedented outbreak. While championing the heroic efforts of local communities and aid workers in halting the spread of the disease, the contributors also reveal deep structural problems in both the countries and humanitarian agencies involved, which hampered the efforts to contain the epidemic. Alarmingly, they show that little has been learned from these events, with health provision remaining underfunded and poorly equipped to deal with future outbreaks. Such issues, they argue, reflect the wider challenges we face in tackling epidemic disease in an increasingly interconnected world.

Strengthening Post-Ebola Health Systems

Strengthening Post-Ebola Health Systems PDF Author: Ramesh Govindaraj
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464811105
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
The Ebola virus outbreak ravaged parts of West Africa during 2013†“16, particularly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The epidemic had very high human, social, and economic costs; food became scarce, schools were shut down, and ongoing development programs shifted to support the immediate response efforts. The rapid spread of the disease demonstrated the urgent need to invest in health systems and to establish surveillance and preparedness programs for long-term resilience. Strengthening Post-Ebola Health Systems was initiated when Ebola was still raging, in 2015. The book focuses on some of the most critical needs for public health resilience and emergency preparedness: adequate fiscal space, an effective health workforce, and ongoing disease surveillance. Drawing on the Post-Ebola Planning Strategies of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, the book highlights key strategies and investment opportunities that governments and partners might leverage to make health systems more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. The lessons from this book are expected to help guide efforts to rebuild the health systems of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, but they can also be applied to other low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This book will be of interest to policy makers, health practitioners, and development partners who support pandemic preparedness and health-system-strengthening efforts around the world.

The Economic Impact of Ebola on Sub-Saharan Africa

The Economic Impact of Ebola on Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Weltbankgruppe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The most severe impact of the Ebola epidemic, which began in Guinea in December 2013 and quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, has been in lost human lives and suffering. This report, prepared for the World Economic Forum at Davos, focuses on the indirect, economic costs, in particular the effects on economic output in 2015. Most of the economic cost is driven by aversion behavior, which consists of both the actions taken by individuals to avoid exposure to the illness and actions taken by investors in anticipation of those individual choices. The report first estimates the impact of the epidemic on gross domestic product (GDP) in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Here the report builds on sector-specific analysis to update World Bank forecasts for the three countries, and incorporates recent results of World Bank-financed cellphone surveys in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The authors evaluate the economic effects of the epidemic on the continent, beyond the three hardest-hit countries, using assessments by World Bank country economists across the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the report updates estimates from the global economic model of the research arm of the World Bank, to quantify the 2015 impact of the potential spread of the epidemic to other countries. Updated general equilibrium analysis suggests that further spread of the epidemic to other African economies, if the epidemic is not contained and instances of infection continue to occur in other countries, can potentially exact an economic toll of the order of 6 billion dollars. The results underscore the importance of: (a) Ebola and broader pandemic preparedness in African countries; and (b) reaching the goal of zero new cases as soon as possible in the three most affected countries.

Learning from SARS

Learning from SARS PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309182158
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in late 2002 and 2003 challenged the global public health community to confront a novel epidemic that spread rapidly from its origins in southern China until it had reached more than 25 other countries within a matter of months. In addition to the number of patients infected with the SARS virus, the disease had profound economic and political repercussions in many of the affected regions. Recent reports of isolated new SARS cases and a fear that the disease could reemerge and spread have put public health officials on high alert for any indications of possible new outbreaks. This report examines the response to SARS by public health systems in individual countries, the biology of the SARS coronavirus and related coronaviruses in animals, the economic and political fallout of the SARS epidemic, quarantine law and other public health measures that apply to combating infectious diseases, and the role of international organizations and scientific cooperation in halting the spread of SARS. The report provides an illuminating survey of findings from the epidemic, along with an assessment of what might be needed in order to contain any future outbreaks of SARS or other emerging infections.