Ebola isn't just killing people. It's ravaging West Africa's economy.
The Ebola virus is a vicious illness in which victims bleed from the eyes, mouth, and other bodily orifices. The ongoing outbreak is already the worst in history, with a death toll that has topped more than 1,200 as of Tuesday, according to figures compiled by the World Health Organization.
What's less widely known are the effects of Ebola on the economies of the countries afflicted by the outbreak, which include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria. As David Francis of Foreign Policy writes:
He adds that the total damage will remain unknown until the outbreak is over, but "[i]f history is any indication, the blow is likely to be enormous and disproportionate to the death toll. For instance, the 2003 SARS outbreak, which killed 800 people, inflicted some $50 billion in damages to the global economy, according to the Economist. Ebola could be even worse."
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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.
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