By Alex Hawkes
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is beginning to take a toll on international business with London-based insurers facing claims for cancelled travel and events.
Insurers say they are receiving claims relating to the outbreak and, while payouts are rare because policies routinely exclude epidemics, claims are beginning to underline a reluctance to do business even in parts of Africa unaffected by the outbreak.
Amanda Lewis, an underwriter at insurer Aegis, said: ‘The outbreak has caused some isolated event cancellations. Losses are being reported into the London market and I would expect that to gain some momentum.’
The outbreak has been focused on Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, but it is thought it has affected attendance at conferences in South Africa, thousands of miles away.
‘People’s perception is that it is the whole of Africa. The detail gets lost in the hysteria,’ said Lewis.
Insurers started to exclude disease outbreaks in standard contracts following the SARS epidemic in 2002-3.
Even when disease is covered, insurance contracts do not generally cover losses caused by the fear of a disease rather than the disease itself, Lewis added.
Source: Daily Mail
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