What is it about?
An opinion piece questioning where disability has been in humanitarian discourses and practices linked to the Ebola epidemic and people termed Ebola survivors.
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Why is it important?
In this article, I question where ‘disability’ has been in humanitarian discourses and practices linked to the Ebola epidemic. Policy and practice have generally focused on issues linked to biosecurity in relation to West Africa but not on creation of disability linked to breakdown of health systems. Those same discourses of containment and biosocial risks are now being used in relation to people who have survived Ebola but have disabling symptoms.
Perspectives
The focus in humanitarian discourses and practices during the epidemic seemed to be mainly on Ebola and the links to stigma as disabling, rather than focusing on how to combat creation of disability due to lack of access of health, and ensuring disability mainstreaming in health systems and public health viewed more broadly. The links to disability and gender mainstreaming in public health and health needs of survivors also totally absent in rebuilding health systems more generally.
Dr Maria Berghs
De Montfort University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Neoliberal policy, chronic corruption and disablement: biosecurity, biosocial risks and the creation of ‘Ebola survivors’?, Disability & Society, February 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2016.1145384.
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