Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park Campus, Johannesburg, 2006, South Africa.
Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 24;13(1):4859. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32040-6.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is one of the most highly stigmatised diseases in any affected country because of the disease's high infectivity and case fatality rate. Infected individuals and most especially survivors are often stigmatised by their communities for fear of contagion. We propose and analyse a mathematical model to examine the impact of stigmatisation of Ebola survivors on the disease dynamics. The model captures both the internal stigmatisation experienced by infected individuals after witnessing survivors being stigmatised and the external stigmatisation imposed on survivors by their communities. The results obtained from our analysis and simulations show that both internal and external stigma may lead to an increase in the burden of Ebola virus disease by sustaining the number of infected individuals who hide their infection and the number of unsafe burials of deceased Ebola victims. Strategies that seek to put an end to both forms of stigmatisation and promote safe burials will therefore go a long way in averting the EVD burden.
埃博拉病毒病（EVD）是受影响国家中最具污名化的疾病之一，因为该疾病具有很高的传染性和病死率。受感染的个人，尤其是幸存者，往往因担心被传染而受到社区的污名化。我们提出并分析了一个数学模型，以研究对埃博拉幸存者的污名化对疾病动态的影响。该模型既捕捉了感染者在目睹幸存者被污名化后所经历的内在污名化，也捕捉了社区对幸存者施加的外在污名化。我们的分析和模拟结果表明，内在和外在的污名都可能导致埃博拉病毒病负担增加，因为这会维持那些隐瞒感染的感染者数量，以及不安全埋葬埃博拉死者的数量。因此，寻求消除这两种污名化形式并促进安全埋葬的策略，将有助于减轻埃博拉病毒病的负担。
