Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History

By Paul Farmer

Categories: Health, Fitness & Dieting, History

In Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds (2020), physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer recounts the 2014 West African Ebola epidemic, drawing on his work treating patients in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Farmer argues that the high death toll reflected not the virus alone but centuries of history, including the slave trade, colonial rule, the extraction of diamonds and other resources, and civil wars, which left the region's health systems unable to provide basic care.

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• Melinda French Gates: “Dr. Paul Farmer’s new book could hardly be more timely.”