The Ebola Crisis and the Corresponding Public Behavior: A System Dynamics Approach

Conclusion and Future Work It is vital to consider how the behavior of communities plays an important role in the spread of Ebola in West Africa. This extends not only to the disease itself but also to the contagion of irrational behaviors. Not only the public, but also high ranking officials, scientists, and even policy makers are at risk for presumptive and consequently dangerous behavior; therefore, it is necessary to combine physical disease spread along with behavioral practices that hinder or spread the disease. As the United Nations head of the Ebola mission (Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed) attested, combatting the Ebola outbreak was slowed by both “traditional practices” and “lack of knowledge” (Ohlheiser, 2015)27. Future considerations of behavioral and psychological factors are needed for an adequate and effective response to outbreaks of deadly diseases such as Ebola. The system dynamics approach is a very helpful tool in grasping the whole picture and helping key actors better understand and act upon the reality and facts within the chaotic behavioral decisions and their impact on an epidemic. Overall, response to any infectious disease such as Ebola requires constant monitoring and adaptability. Dynamic adaptability is a feature of our model, which gets away from presumptions as we strive to create a working baseline for future policy implementation modeling as well as retrospective impact assessment, particularly with regard to social and behavioral factors....
Source: PLOS Currents Outbreaks - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Source Type: research