How War and Crisis Help Spread Diseases Like Zika (Kip Whittington, The National Interest)

In 2014, West Africa experienced the world’s largest Ebola virus outbreak. For two years, the poverty-stricken countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire were ravaged by the disease, leading to over eleven thousand deaths and cementing the 2014 outbreak’s deadly place in history. During the epidemic, global attention was largely focused on preventing the spread of the Ebola virus. Less reported was how an entire subregion of Africa became so susceptible to the rapid spread of a catastrophic disease. While poverty is a well-known driver of disease, its links with another potent driver are often ignored by the foreign-policy community— conflict.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-war-crisis-help-spread-diseases-zika-17109