Rites of Mobility and Epidemic Control: Ebola Virus Disease in the Mano River Basin

Back to results
Author(s)
Onoma, A.K.
Publication language
English
Pages
12pp
Date published
22 Jan 2016
Publisher
Governance in Africa
Type
Articles
Keywords
Disasters, Epidemics & pandemics, Forced displacement and migration, Urban
Countries
Sierra Leone

When understood as an embedded practice in the Mano River Basin, the issue of mobility need not threaten Ebola Virus Disease epidemic control efforts. Rites of mobility in the Mano River Basin ensure that migrants are often enmeshed in circuits of knowledge and compliance that have important implications for epidemic control. Local hosts, with whom migrants frequently have very intimate relations, often know a lot about their migrant guests and can exercise significant influence over them. If properly engaged by public health officials, these hosts could offer significant leverage in mapping geographies of transmission as well as in promoting compliance with epidemic control measures.