Addressing Women and Ebola in Specialized Discourse: A Corpus- Based Study

When analysing the incidence of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) on the African population, there seems to be no difference in terms of vulnerability for both men and women. However, recent studies have begun to draw attention to a series of risks and possible complications caused by EVD and concerning pregnant women in particular. While the overall fertile age ranges from fifteen to forty four years, this study focuses on women living in the sub- Saharan area, who tend to give birth to their first child at the average age of 20.9 years. In fact, the case of pregnant women poses a further set of issues, in both cultural and healthcarerelated matters. From a cultural perspective, women act as caregivers in their homes and communities, which puts them at an increased risk of contracting the virus. From a strictly medical point of view, it is also suggested that pregnant women with active EVD may transmit the virus during childbirth, thus risking infecting the people around. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this study is to explore the language and terminology used to describe the situation of pregnant women during the two most recent EVD outbreaks (from 2014 until present day), using the research methods of Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Studies. A corpus composed of academic texts was thus processed, and the most frequent keywords were analysed within the framework of specialized medical discourse.