Implications of Changing Attitudes towards Game Meat Consumption at the Time of Ebola in Limbe, Cameroon

Abstract

In this article, we examine social responses to the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in Cameroon, a country near to but beyond the farthest reaches of known Ebola cases. As Ebola spread in West Africa, there was mounting anxiety that the epidemic would spill over the border with Nigeria. To investigate people's responses to Ebola-fear, we interviewed a sample of fifty people living in Limbe, near the Nigerian border. We found a pattern of response that involved information-seeking, the adoption of various behavioral strategies believed to protect people from infection, and the spread of messages about Ebola prevention by word of mouth and through social media. Informed by resilience theory and recognition of the emergent nature of culture, we argue that by studying people's emotional, behavioral, and social reactions to perceived health threats, medical anthropologists can contribute to efforts to develop useful intervention in a world of enhanced infectious disease epidemic risk.