With the deadly disease having reportedly claimed the lives of at least 3,229 people across countries like Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, it has been revealed that 75 per cent of people who have died as a result of the Ebola virus are women.
According to reports from the Ministry of Health in Liberia, women account for about 75 per cent of the Ebola deaths the country has recorded so far.
In recent interview with Washinton Post, Liberia’s minister for Gender and Development, Julia Duncan-Cassell, confirm the data.
‘Women are the caregivers — if a kid is sick, they say, ‘Go to your mom.’
‘The cross-border trade women go to Guinea and Sierra Leone for the weekly markets, [and] they are also the caregivers. Most of the time when there is a death in the family, it’s the woman who prepares the funeral, usually an aunt or older female relative.’