Resources

Material Proximities and Hotspots: Toward an Anthropology of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers

This resource outlines a research program for an anthropology of viral hemorrhagic fevers and reviews the social science literature on Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fevers and charts areas for future ethnographic attention. The paper suggests that attention to the material proximities between animals, humans, and objects, that constitute the "hotspot", opens a frontier for critical and methodological development in medical anthropology and for future collaborations in viral hemorrhagic fever management and control.

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Sierra Leone continues to struggle for relief from Lassa fever

This short article in The Lancet describes the issues faced by the medical relief charity MERLIN, which provides Lassa fever services in Sierra Leone, during and after the civil war. 

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Lassa fever in post-conflict Sierra Leone

This resource presents observations of case fatality rates of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone after the civil war and compared to studies completed prior to the conflict. Peak presentation of Lassa fever cases occurs in the dry season, which is consistent with previous studies. This paper's studies also confirmed reports conducted prior to the civil war that indicate that infants, children, young adults, and pregnant women are disproportionately impacted by Lassa fever.

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Emerging disease or emerging diagnosis?: Lassa fever and Ebola in Sierra Leone

This article looks beyond Ebola in 2014 to the history of efforts to control VHFs in the Mano River and challenges the idea that there was a vacuum of knowledge. Highlighted instead are politics of knowledge which have run through global health and which have prioritized particular forms of knowledge and ways of dealing with disease. Ethnographic research on the emergence of Lassa and the subsequent emergence of Ebola in West Africa is presented, focusing on the development of technologies and institutions to detect and manage both viruses.

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Risk maps of Lassa fever in West Africa

With the aim of gaining more information to control this disease, this paper carries out a spatial analysis of Lassa fever data from human cases and infected rodent hosts covering the period 1965–2007. 

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