SPRI Global members have been carrying out a sectoral (health and education) cost assessment of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) 2014-2016 crisis for children of Sierra Leone. The costing exercise was separately carried out for the health and education dimensions. The future income loss due to children missing or terminating school was assessed and discounted to obtain the present value of the cost of EVD for children through the education channel.

A similar exercise has been carried out for the health channel by assessing and discounting to present value the income loss due to increased morbidity and mortality associated with Ebola. An attempt to simulate longer-term health related costs of EVD for children of Sierra Leone has also been undertaken.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and rapidly became the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976. In fact, the epidemic killed five times more than all other known Ebola outbreaks combined. More than 21 months on from the first confirmed case recorded on 23 March 2014, 11,315 people have been reported as having died from the disease in six countries; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US and Mali. The number of reported cases is approaching 30,000.