Clinical Trials/Research

Identify and link trials with anthropologists and social scientists who can feed into the design of research and support participants and fieldworkers; provide anthropological insight into issues relating to vaccine, drug and blood plasma trials as well as other clinical research, including emerging resistances/rumours and working with survivors; provide inputs into planning for clinical research, such as considerations for ethics and acceptability of trials.

Ebola: failures, flashpoints and focus

As the worst Ebola epidemic on record shows no signs of abating in West Africa, fear and ignorance are increasingly said to be playing a role in its continued spread. Meanwhile, local practices such as the consumption of bushmeat and deforestation are the go-to explanations for the epidemic’s underlying causes. However, decades of anthropological research in the region by STEPS Centre and Institute of Development Studies (IDS) researchers, indicates not only that this picture is an over-simplification, but that disease control policies based on these ideas may be unhelpful.