Epidemics

This chapter reflects on the changing nature of humanitarian engagement with epidemics. Case studies analysing outbreaks of cholera in North Kivu, Zaire in 1994 and Haiti in 2010 as well as an outbreak of polio in the Horn of Africa in 2013 demonstrate the importance of looking behind narratives of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ to explore the challenges facing humanitarian agencies working in diverse social, political and resource-poor settings. Many of these challenges remain enduring, with the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa demonstrating that both the scale and nature of humanitarian assistance is currently being shaped by narratives linking health and disease with global security. It is also evident that assistance tends to be more effective in those places where humanitarian agencies co-ordinate their activities, while simultaneously adapting their work to the unique social, political and economic contexts in which epidemics occur.