Ebola: A Post-colonial Epidemic

One reason Ebola has been so difficult to contain is that it emerged in countries marked by poverty and violence. Their populations - who still remember the injustices of the colonial and post-colonial periods - do not trust their leaders or the Westerners who have come to help. They are fleeing hospitals, which they consider simply to be places in which to die, thereby promoting the spread of Ebola and allowing other diseases to develop. Adapted from the source document.