By Derek Hunter
An overlooked factor in the worsening Ebola crisis in Sierra
Leone, Guinea and Liberia is the devastating economic effect of the disease.
These countries are some of the poorest in the world, and now their fragile
economies are being presented with a toxic mix of insufficient government
funding for health services, human capital flight in vital economic sectors
such as agriculture, and a de facto (and sometimes official) quarantine from
abroad.
In response to these problems, the International Monetary
Fund is seeking to expand its preexisting bailout programs to these countries.
The Wall
Street Journal discusses the (noble, but insufficient) financial support
being provided by the IMF and other financial institutions to help these
countries combat the Ebola epidemic.
