1. 2015 Ebola Cases
and Poverty Rates
Frank Patnode and Brian Hatfield

2. Introduction
● Ebola has devastated the three West African countries of
Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone since its appearance in
December 2013.
● Extremely contagious and deadly.
● Crippled all three countries.
● Poverty is also rampant in all three nations.
● With Ebola winding down, we wanted to see if Ebola was
still occurring in countries where poverty was high.

3. Goals and Objectives
Goal: To see if current Ebola cases were occurring in
greater numbers inside countries with higher poverty.
Objective: Help raise awareness of high poverty rates in
Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone and show that by helping
alleviate poverty, local government programs can fight
against Ebola.

4. Methodology for Poverty Map
1. Gathered poverty data from the World Bank
a. Unable to find per/district data
2. Loaded district basemap
a. Overlayed with headcount poverty per country
3. Headcount
a. Number of people (in percent) below national
poverty line

5. Methodology for Poverty Map

6. Methodology for Ebola Map
1. Found Ebola cases data on the WHO
website for each country and its districts.
2. Compiled all the data in a CSV file.
3. Had to create a new CSV file for each
country so that I could add up and compile
all the cases between January and April
2015.
4. Joined the data in the CSV files to a
ShapeFile that held the countries
coordinates and districts.
5. Add each country onto one map.
6. Played around with the map and legend
scheme.
7. Then add from Arc GIS database were
Ebola treatment centers were located.
8. End up with final map!

9. Discussion
❖ Ebola Map
➢ Many districts are reporting 0 cases, mainly in Liberia
➢ Sierra Leone struggles the greatest with Ebola cases
➢ Ebola cases are being mostly reported where the population is higher
➢ Liberia has/had the highest number of treatment centers, which means treatment centers
are effective
➢ Many Ebola Treatment Centers are shutting down in large numbers
➢ Surprised by the lack of Ebola Treatment Centers in Guinea, which was the first to report
Ebola cases and is the wealthiest of the three nations.
❖ Poverty
➢ Headcount increases southerly
➢ Liberia is highest in poverty
➢ Despite this, has the least Ebola cases
➢ Guinea headcount and GDP
■ Number of poor people?

10. Conclusion
Relationship
● No relationship between poverty and Ebola cases
○ Instead changes with density
● Ebola Treatment Centers are important

11. Sources
❖ Ebola Cases per District data: World Health Organization: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.
ebola-sitrep
❖ ArcGIS Online: Baselayer map
❖ ArcGIS Online: Ebola Treatment Centers
➢ World Health Organization
❖ The World Bank
➢ http://data.worldbank.org/country/liberia...