Hidden Tales of Ebola: Airing the Forgotten Voices of Ugandan "Ebola Nurses"

Introduction

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ebola has affected the lives of thousands, including health care workers. With few studies describing the experience of nurses who survived Ebola, the study aimed to describe Ugandan nurses’ experiences.

Method

Using a phenomenological design, in-depth interviews were conducted among five Ugandan nurses who contracted Ebola and survived.

Result

Thematic analysis revealed themes of expectations of dying, hopelessness, loneliness, and betrayal by family, community, and the health system.

Discussion

Results support the need for policies targeting holistic practice protocols to protect all health care professionals during future outbreaks. Last, nursing survivors should have access to government-guaranteed support programs, including free health care and financial stipends. These results and recommendations transcend to the current reality of living with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). Efficient practice protocols could protect all rights and privileges and contribute to access to treatment and stigma removal.

Pregnancy Fasting in Ramadan: Toward a Biocultural Framework

Pregnancy fasting poses a paradox: why would a woman restrict her diet during a period of increased nutritional need? This qualitative, cross-sectional study applied biological and cultural evolutionary theories of pregnancy diet to emic models of fasting with the aim of establishing a testable biocultural framework of pregnancy fasting. The research took place with Muslim women residing in Mysore, India. In-depth interviews were conducted with pregnant women who have experience and knowledge of fasting during during the holy month of Ramadan. Our findings indicate that pregnancy fasting is socially acquired via multiple modes of transmission and that women do not fast according to mainstream evolutionary theories of pregnancy diet, but perhaps to gain moral capital.

Ebola in West Africa: Biosocial and Biomedical Reflections

The West Africa ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people, is fading from urgency and memory. Technical biomedical lessons-learned are being applied in drug and vaccine development, for example in response to Zika. But biosocial issues that arose may not have been directly confronted, or sometimes even noticed, despite their overall importance in the eventual control and ending of the epidemic.