Oxfam says that it’s not enough just to stop the West African Ebola Epidemic.  The London-based charity says the worst affected region is going to require a multi-million dollar “Marshall Plan” to recover from the human and economic cost.

The “Marshall Plan” refers to the successful post-World War II strategy for rebuilding the European economy.  Obviously, Ebola couldn’t possibly cause the kind of material and infrastructure damage that year of continent-wide war did to Europe.  However, the three main countries of the epidemic – Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia – are among the world’s poorest, and the virus was able to spread so devastatingly in part because of the lack of plumbing and sewers, non-existent health care systems, and in some cases unresponsive government.

“The world cannot walk away now that, thankfully, cases of this deadly disease are dropping. Failure to help these countries after surviving Ebola will condemn them to a double disaster,” said Oxfam GB Chief Executive Mark Goldring.  “The world was late in waking up to the Ebola crisis, there can be no excuses for not helping to put these economies and lives back together.”

Almost three-quarters of families in Liberia saw their meager incomes drop as the epidemic progress from the beginning of 2014.  At the same time, the price of rice rose 40 percent.  Food prices also went up in Sierra Leone, where the epidemic caused 180,000 job loses.

Oxfam is looking to wealthier nations for commitments to supporting services like health, education and sanitation, as well as investing in jobs.