Socio-Economic Impact of Ebola Virus Disease in West African Countries

With the intensity of the pandemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and even if it is restricted to these three most affected countries, a long-term propagation of EVD in these countries will have a substantial impact on all West African economies. The disease is unprecedented in scale and virulence. The intensity and complexity of the
outbreak in the three countries makes it difficult for individual countries to handle, requiring a coordinated approach. Both the relatively free movement of goods and people in the region and close community ties that make it very difficult to contain the outbreak and the limited internal capacity to cope with the outbreak in terms
of human, financial, operational and logistics capacity call for a regional dimension. If the outbreak of EVD is not addressed collectively, the start of the domestication and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in these countries and their neighbours will be put at risk.