Burke Fellow Seminar Series: The True Burden of Ebola in West Africa

What do Pardis Sabeti, Raj Panjabi and Margaret Bourdeaux have in common? They are all former HGHI Burke Fellows! Join us for a new monthly seminar series to hear from this year’s Burke fellows about their innovative research and teaching projects.

Eugene Richardson, Ph.D., MD, MA

“Estimating the True Burden of Ebola Virus Transmission During the 2013-16 Outbreak in West Africa”

The 2013-16 Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in West Africa was the largest in recorded history and was the result of dysfunctional health services, a highly mobile and interconnected population, low public trust in government, burial practices that involved contact with contagious Ebola-infected corpses, and provision of care to infected individuals. Despite over 28,000 reported cases, our understanding of the epidemiology of EVD is limited, including empirical data explaining why this outbreak was so much larger than previous ones. The overall goal of this study is to investigate the prevalence and distribution of undocumented EVD survivors in West Africa. Eugene’s main hypotheses are that there are hundreds — if not thousands — of undocumented survivors in the region and that the lack of adequate treatment facilities played a key role in deterring compliance with containment measures.

Eugene Richardson is Assistant Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his MD from Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University. He completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford University Medical Center.