Ethics · 5 Aug 2026

shadow crisis epidemic containment ethics

Consider the following statements:

  1. A "shadow crisis" refers to a secondary, often less visible, crisis generated indirectly by the response to a primary emergency rather than by the emergency itself.
  2. In the Ituri province case, weekly maternal deaths declined after strict isolation protocols were introduced during the Ebola outbreak.
  3. Risk-stratified triage, involving rapid diagnostic testing before automatic isolation, is presented as one possible approach to reduce collateral harm without abandoning containment altogether.

How many of the above statements are correct?

AOnly one
BOnly two
CAll three
DNone

Tests the ability to correctly identify causal direction in a policy-outcome relationship, distinguishing a plausible-sounding but reversed claim from what the source actually establishes.

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About this question

Why in news

Pregnant women in eastern Congo are avoiding hospitals due to fear of Ebola quarantine, causing weekly maternal deaths in Ituri province to nearly double between May and July 2026.

Why for UPSC

This tests whether aspirants grasp the article's core ethical concept precisely, including correctly identifying that the strict protocol worsened, rather than improved, maternal outcomes - a reversal UPSC-style questions often test directly.

Prelims summary

A "shadow crisis" is a secondary crisis caused by response to an emergency rather than the emergency itself; Ituri's maternal deaths nearly doubled under strict Ebola isolation protocols, prompting proposals for risk-stratified triage as a balanced alternative.

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