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potentially play crucial roles in educating their congregants on the importance of adhering to scriptural recommendations for how to deal with human remains in a way that minimizes infections [37]. For example, the book of Numbers 19:11–12 states that whoever touches the corpse of any person must purify himself with water to be clean, and Leviticus 21:10–12 prescribes that a high priest “must not go where there is any dead person”. After education, each group of people (health officials, community leaders, religious leaders, and spiritual healers) should collaborate with one another to implement and monitor prescribed preventive measures, such as the proper burial of those who have died of highly infectious diseases in line with cultural and religious norms [37]. Community leaders will be able to judge the degree to which to adjust the elements of traditional burial practices to scientifically prescribed methods, and vice versa, to reduce the spread of the disease. Even if community members still have feelings of mistrust and hostility toward foreign health workers and NGOs, they will respect their leaders’ thoughts and eventually accept the coexistence of biomedicine and ethnomedicine. In brief, Table 2 summarized findings from results and discussion sections. CONCLUSION Everyone wants to show respect for the deceased. This respect manifests itself in different ways across the world. Whereas developed countries encourage cremation, people in remote areas of the developing world may still adhere to traditional burial rituals. The overall lesson learned from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is that implementing standard biomedical protocols alone is not enough to control the disease in the earliest stage. Fear and the spread of misinformation about disease outbreaks are rampant in Africa, and a high level of distrust and hostility exists among African people toward foreign health workers. Thus, it is essential for these workers to have a full understanding of the cultures, beliefs, religions, traditions, and values of communities to design effective disease control plans. Safe handling and burial procedures are a highly sensitive issue for the bereaved family and community. To prevent trouble or conflict, every step of the burial process should be fully explained to the family, and none of the steps should take place until agreement is obtained. Without sacrifices and contributions from • A number of retrospective epidemiological studies found that traditional funeral practices were proven to be a major risk for the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. • It was found that there were gender differences in risk factors for Ebola transmission; paternal aunts or older women were main caregivers who prepare for traditional funeral and burial rituals, which caused that a much higher proportion of women than men were exposed to Ebola transmissions and died of Ebola. • The WHO Ebola Response Team met strong resistance and violence in remote areas, ranging from verbal to physical assaults to murder when they tried to isolate patients or take dead bodies from their residences for preventing further Ebola transmissions due to a lack of understanding of religious, spiritual, and traditional beliefs in West Africa. • After experiencing villagers’ resistance, WHO, CDC, NGOs, and governments in West Africa began implementing health promotion and communications in the field and culturally acceptable dignified, safe burials. • To prevent or control any infectious disease outbreaks in the future, it is essential to further design and implement the health communication theory framework. Table 2. Summary of findings. Journal of Health and Social Sciences 2020; 5,1:073-090 The Italian Journal for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Development 85 all stakeholders, local and international, successful control of the Ebola outbreak would not have been possible. While maintaining an enthusiastic spirit of sacrifice, it is time for us to strengthen our surveillance and preparedness in the event of another outbreak and design the theory-based framework further to supplement community-tailored communication strategies to save more precious lives in the future. When each of us understands and acknowledges the dignity and respect of the deceased in Africa, deadly infectious disea]ses such as Ebola will be successfully contained in the earliest stages. References 1. Lyman D, editor. The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: from the Latin. Cleveland, OH: LE Bernard & Company; 1856. 2. Doughty C. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death. New York City, NY: W. W. Norton & Company; 2017. 3. Sanburn J. More Americans Than Ever Are Choosing to Be Cremated. TIME [updated 2017 July 13; cited 2020 Jan 06]. Available from: https://time.com/4853150/cremation-rate-us-50-percent/ (2017). 4. Sanburn J. Cremation Is Now Outpacing Traditional Burial in the U.S.: TIME [updated 2016 Aug 01; cited 2020 Jan 06]. Available from: http://time.com/4425172/cremation-outpaces-burial-u-s/ (2016). 5. National Geographic. Sky Burials: Tradition Becomes Controversial Tourist Attraction | Short Film Showcase. Youtube [updated 2016 Feb 06; cited 2020 Jan 07]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=BreEms4m_6U&t=508s (2016). 6. Weatherford J. Savages and
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