THE WEST AFRICAN EBOLA OUTBREAK AND ITS EFFECT ON HUMAN RIGHTS: A RETROSPECTIVE EXAMINATION

The West African Ebola Virus Disease outbreak remains one of the deadliest infective disease outbreak in recent years. It once again resurrected ancient fears of pestilence and resulted in the near abandonment of international health regulations that were geared towards ensuring the protection of basic fundamental rights even in the face of an epidemic. The study thus examined the causes of the EVD outbreak and its effect on fundamental rights of citizens of affected countries. A doctrinal approach was adopted in this paper. Thus primary and secondary sources of information were relied on. It was found that though International conventions enjoin countries to ensure the protection of human rights and trade in instituting public health measures aimed at controlling infectious disease outbreaks. This conventions were jettisoned and they resulted in several of human rights and were also counter-productive with regards to disease control. It was thus suggested that a human rights based approach remains the best approach in addressing public health issues. It was also suggested that there should be increased efforts by developed countries to help less developed countries develop necessary infrastructure for disease detection, control and management of epidemics.