Journal of Health and Social Sciences 2020; 5,1:073-090 The Italian Journal for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Development NARRATIVE REVIEW IN PUBLIC HEALTH AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES Traditional funeral and burial rituals and Ebola outbreaks in West Africa: A narrative review of causes and strategy interventions Chulwoo PARK1 Affiliations: 1 MSPH, Department of Global Health, The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Corresponding author: Chulwoo Park, Department of Global Health, The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, 950 New Hampshire Ave NW, Suite 428N, Washington, D.C., United States 20052. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Introduction: In West Africa, traditional funerals and burials have proven main contributors to the spread of infectious diseases, such as Ebola, plague, the Marburg virus, and others. Although the World Health Organization has provided guidelines for the safe burial process after learning of the culture of the afterlife in Ebola-affected areas, little effort has been made to integrate theoretical interventions and models for changing West Africans’ funeral behavior. This research was conducted to study 1) the background of tradi- tional burial rituals, 2) interventions to contain Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, and 3) a strategic approach to future disease outbreak in the region. Methods: A narrative review was conducted by using four electronic databases—PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus—using search key terms and a manual search of Google Scholar and gray literature. A date range was open to all years, up to 2017 to include a historical aspect of Africans’ funerary rituals and 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.