World Bank: Ebola set to hit economies of West Africa

9 Oct 14
The Ebola crisis could cost West Africa a total $32.6bn in lost economic output by the end of next year, the World Bank has warned.

The most affected countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone – as well as neighbours in the region – face ‘massive economic costs’ if it takes a long time for national and international action to contain the epidemic.

Bank president Jim Yong Kim urged the international community to act now, as the weak public health infrastructure and institutions in many fragile countries was a threat not only to their own citizens but also to their trading partners and the world at large.

Kim said: ‘With Ebola’s potential to inflict massive economic costs on Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and the rest of their neighbours in West Africa, the international community must find ways to get past logistical roadblocks and bring in more doctors and trained medical staff, more hospital beds, and more health and development support to help stop Ebola in its tracks.’

In its analysis, the bank said options should be explored for financing improvements to health security infrastructure, as well as revised protocols for the seaports and airports of the three core countries and their neighbours. 

It said the successful containment of Ebola in Nigeria and Senegal so far is evidence that this is possible, if there was both health system capacity and a resolute policy response.

The report added that: ‘Effort and memory will be required to sustain and continue strengthening this early warning network and the complementary investments in effective and resilient African health systems after the Ebola outbreak has been contained.

‘Taken together, the containment effort, the fiscal support, the restoration of investor confidence, and the expanded disease surveillance, diagnostic and treatment capacity promise to first stem the Ebola epidemic, and then help to reverse as quickly as possible the aversion behaviour that is causing so much economic damage.’

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