I watched a BBC YouTube video about Ebola. I think people who live in Africa are afraid of Western medicine and the West discourages African burial practices that follow African culture and customs. The suspicion of Western medicine might cause the Ebola problem to continue to come back again many times.
It certainly did, especially at the start of the epidemic. However, to their credit, the respective countries medical community arm-twisted their governments to strongly crack down on such bad habits.
An element of an epidemic that is hard to measure is “stupid fear vs. smart fear”, because a public imbued with “smart fear” engages in practices that strongly suppress the epidemic.
An example of how this happens can be seen in the evolution of the public mind in the US, starting at the time of the Spanish flu of 1918-’20. At that time, the US medical community was well versed in sanitation and the use of effective antiseptics, especially carbolic soap. Importantly, this was discovered before they knew what the virus pathogen was, though they suspected an infective agent too small to see with a microscope.
At the same time, the public’s ignorance was such that when a rumor swept middle America that a sweater made and sold by a woman in Indiana prevented flu, she received thousands of orders.
This ignorance was changed by the US government during WWII, by instituting a nationwide program of education about infectious diseases, starting even in elementary school.
So Africa needs something like this educational program.