Epidemiology and behavior in the time of Ebola

This week the WHO Ebola Response Team published a paper raising the notion that Ebola could become endemic in the human population of West Africa. The idea hadn't occurred to me previously, and it struck me as very unlikely. After all, this is a directly transmissible disease that, as many have told us, we know how to control.

After reflecting on the possibility, however, I don't think it can be discounted out of hand. On the one hand, breaking the chain of transmission can be achieved theoretically with careful attention to infection control and prevention practice, which is well defined in the healthcare environment. On the other hand, this isn't a nosocomial outbreak. Community transmission is the major driver of incident cases, so changing human behavior in the community must occur if this epidemic is to be stopped. In general behavior is hard to affect, and in this case it may be even harder, given recent descriptions of distrust between healthcare providers and the community.

As I've mentioned before, one of the uses of mathematical modeling is to support clear and careful thinking. In this case, epidemiologists have applied models to estimate the basic reproduction ratio, R₀, and have found it to be greater than 1, consistent with estimates from past outbreaks. Such an R₀ suggests that the virus has the potential to circulate permanently in the human population at some non-zero endemic prevalence. Endemic prevalence levels could be, relatively speaking, high or low (or intermediate). If low enough, the disease could fade out stochastically on its own, but at higher prevalences the continual danger of sporadic cases could persist indefinitely. Models can help us gain a sense of the relative likelihood of such outcomes.

The risk factors for acquiring Ebola virus infection are well known. If effective interventions reducing risky behavior are instituted widely and adhered to, they may reduce the effective reproduction ratio, R_eff, to less than 1, thereby breaking the chain of transmission. Achieving that must entail not only nosocomial infection control but also infection prevention through behavioral change in the community.

Changing behavior surely involves building and rebuilding trust between healthcare providers and local people. I suspect and hope that the recent massive pledges of, and plans for, assistance will help build the necessary rapport and trust. Maybe the construction of clinic facilities that better support effective care will help advance such endeavors. One thing is certain, however: the longer those pledges take to become reality, the more likely the worst scenarios for the course of this epidemic become.

(image source: Wikipedia)