Placing the epidemic within the historical context of the transatlantic slave trade, European colonial rule, and more recent "diamond-fueled" civil wars, Farmer argues that the disastrous "control-over-care paradigm" used to combat Ebola had its roots in centuries of exploitation and neglect. Medical anthropologist Farmer (coauthor, Reimagining Global Health), cofounder of the international health-care organization Partners in Health, delivers an incisive and deeply informed account of the Ebola outbreak ("the largest in recorded history") that engulfed West Africa in 2014. This thorough and hopeful narrative is a definitive work of reportage, history, and advocacy, and a crucial intervention in public-health discussions around the world. Under formal colonial rule, disease containment was a priority but care was not – and the region’s health care woes worsened, with devastating consequences that Farmer traces up to the present. Rebutting misleading claims about the origins of Ebola and why it spread so rapidly, he traces West Africa’s chronic health failures back to centuries of exploitation and injustice. In vibrant prose, Farmer tells the harrowing stories of Ebola victims while showing why the medical response was slow and insufficient. In Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds, he offers the first substantive account of this frightening, fast-moving episode and its implications. Paul Farmer, the internationally renowned doctor and anthropologist, experienced the Ebola outbreak firsthand-Partners in Health, the organization he founded, was among the international responders. But why did it happen, and what can we learn from it? Causing severe loss of life and economic disruption, the Ebola crisis was a major tragedy of modern medicine. The brutal virus spread rapidly through a clinical desert where basic health-care facilities were few and far between. In 2014, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea suffered the worst epidemic of Ebola in history. Invaluable." -Steven Johnson, The New York Times Book Review " history is as powerfully conveyed as it is tragic. It is hard to imagine a more timely or important book.” -Bill and Melinda Gates “Paul Farmer brings his considerable intellect, empathy, and expertise to bear in this powerful and deeply researched account of the Ebola outbreak that struck West Africa in 2014.
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