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. 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.In 2014, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea suffered the worst epidemic of Ebola in history. 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, he tells the harrowing stories of Ebola victims while showing why the medical response was slow and insufficient. But why did it happen, and what can we learn from it? 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.

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.

Fevers feuds and diamonds