In the past, before the 2014-15 outbreak, poverty was associated with higher transmission. Since that has occurred, there have been a number of studies done on the correlation and have since found that there is an equal risk of infection between poor and wealthy populations. There could be other factors at play outside of socioeconomic status, such as level of isolation of a community.

In today's cases, local anthropologists are looking further into these questions. What is exciting is local communities are doing these studies within their own culture; this is a big change from the past. A western researcher may not understand the nuances involved in a response or know what questions to ask.

An important consideration is that this point of view is relative to our own socioeconomic status and mitigation efforts depend on everybody's ability to understand their own risk factors among their lifestyle and community.