Fevers, feuds, and diamonds : Ebola and the ravages of history
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages [527]-619) and index.

Bklst 09/01/2020

LJ Oct 2020

PW 08/09/2020

Kirkus 09/15/2020

"In 2014, a devastating virus spread through West Africa, afflicting Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea and prompting fear and panic around the world. A major tragedy of modern medicine, the Ebola crisis resulted in loss of life and economic disruption on a grand scale-and yet, contrary to reports of an unstoppable 'killer' pathogen, this outcome was by no means inevitable. Why did the virus wreak such havoc within those three countries, and only there? Why do other pathogens follow similarly uneven paths? Paul Farmer, the internationally renowned physician and anthropologist, experienced the Ebola outbreak firsthand. Partners In Health, the organization he founded in Haiti in 1987, was among the aid groups that responded to the crisis. Now, in Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds, Farmer offers the first substantive, on-the-ground account of this fast-moving medical catastrophe...he recounts the harrowing stories of Ebola victims while showing how old-school racism and colonialism have morphed into present-day threats to public health. Rebutting misleading, sensationalized claims about the origins and spread of Ebola, Farmer traces West Africa's trails back to its past: Under colonial rule, disease containment was prioritized while care for the sick-the 'natives'-was not. The legacies of racism, the slave trade, and formal colonial rule left West Africa a clinical desert-a region where basic health-care facilities were few and far between. This would have deleterious results in 2014, when caring for the sick was once again subordinated to containing the disease, to the detriment of both imperatives. Today, as the world faces epidemiological challenges on an even larger scale, Paul Farmer insists that we cannot ignore the consequences of 2014. In the epilogue to this book, he discusses Partners In Health's efforts to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, and what we can learn from Ebola today. This pointed and hopeful narrative is a definitive work of reportage, history, and advocacy, and a crucial intervention in public-health debates around the world."--book jacket.