Ebola: Story of an Outbreak

by Laurie Garrett

Where does Ebola originate? How does it spread? And what should governments do to stop it? Few people understand the answers to these questions better than Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett. In this masterful account of the 1995 Ebola outbreak in Zaire, Garrett, now the Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, shows how superstition and fear, compounded by a lack of resources, education, and clearheaded government planning have plagued our response to Ebola. In an extensive new introduction, Garrett forcefully argues that learning from past outbreaks is the key to solving the Ebola crisis of 2014. In her account of the 1995 Zaire outbreak, first published in her bestselling book Betrayal of Trust, Garrett takes readers through the epidemic's course-beginning with the Kikwit villager who first contracted it from an animal encounter while chopping wood for charcoal deep in the forest. As she documents the outbreak in riveting detail, Garrett shows why our trust in world governments to protect people's health has been irrevocably broken. She details the international community's engagement in the epidemic's a pattern of response and abandonment, urgency that devolves into amnesia. Story of an Outbreak is essential reading for anyone who wants to comprehend Ebola, one of mankind's most mysterious, malicious scourges. Garrett has issued a powerful call for governments, citizens, and the disease-fighting agencies of the wealthy world to take action.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Medicine, History, Audiobook, Health

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 18, 2014

About the author

Laurie Garrett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1996 for a series of works published in Newsday that chronicled the Ebola virus outbreak in Zaire.

If Laurie Garrett hadn't interrupted her science career to pursue journalism, she probably would have been a professor at a top-rate university doing AIDS research in her lab, says Lee Herzenberg, geneticist at Stanford University and a longtime mentor for Garrett.

Garrett (born 1951) had advanced to a doctoral candidacy in immunology at University of California at Berkeley before deciding that "journalism would be more fun and interesting." She learned the craft at a California radio station, eventually joining National Public Radio as a science correspondent. After eight years at NPR, she joined Newsday in 1986. It was an unusual hiring for Newsday; Garrett had no newspaper experience.

But Garrett, whose flamboyant personality matches her spirit of adventure, already was experienced at traveling the world reporting on new diseases, especially the emergence of AIDS in East Africa. For Newsday, she returned to Africa for further reporting on AIDS and to India where she wrote about a plague outbreak. During the Persian Gulf war, when Jordan's borders were closed, Garrett managed to get in from Israel with a Paris-based doctors' group to report on refugees. She also toted back a bag of Saddam Hussein souvenir watches and SCUD missile earrings for her colleagues. In 10 years, her accordion-like passport has 45 visa stamps from different nations.

Her book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance was a paperback best-seller in 1995. The Brooklyn resident is currently president of the National Association of Science Writers.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a giant Laurie Garrett fangirl when it comes to her writing on emerging diseases and epidemiology so of course all the stars. I want her to update a new edition of The Coming Plague so bad.

This is short work comprised of a new intro followed by some existing text from either Plague or Betrayal of Trust, I forget which. I'm pretty sure Plague. Fascinating, gripping scientific writing. Love her.

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 4 out of 5]

What separates healthcare writers like Laurie Garrett, Paul Farmer (Partners In Health), and Ben Goldacre is their emphasis on the social context and conditions to healthcare.

The biochemistry of disease and treatment is one aspect, but the power structures that prevent accessibility to healthcare is crucial towards understanding root causes and proposing meaningful solutions. This is evident in Garrett's descriptions of the Congo's recent history of Western terrorism and dictatorship, Farmer's analysis of Haiti's similar history, and Goldacre's dismantling of Big Pharma's perverse incentives.

[CYIReadBooks (Claire) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical account of the Ebola outbreak. Somewhat politicized IMO.

[Domingo Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ebola
A story of an outbreak by Laurie Garret.

I like how Mrs. Garret makes a clear account of the roles played by: Corruption, deforestation, lack of health infrastructure, low health expenditure, ignorance, superstition, and starvation in the development of highly infectious diseases.

She also denounces the hypocrisy of the western nations, who seek to take control of the wealth of African Nations by thwarting democratically elected governments and supporting spurious rules that serve the interests of the superpowers.

I have wished that Mrs. Garret had made a more in deep description of the pathology of Ebola. I am interested in knowing what viruses are and how they can be dormant for years and suddenly resurface and go on a killing spree while selecting a host that could ensure their survival.

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recent podcast episode exploring the theme of pandemics recommended this book. It is an excerpt from a longer book written by Garrett, but nevertheless works well as a standalone longform story. We learn of how corruption, basic medical procedures and products (like soap) were important factors in allowing the 1995 Ebola outbreak to happen. If you're at all squeamish, the account can get fairly fulsome in its descriptions, especially when it comes to blood pouring out of every orifice. A highly readable story, with lots of practical lessons for the control of how diseases spread.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Laurie Garrett’s books but this one wasn’t my favorite. This book, while interesting was not really about Ebola but was mostly about the breakdown in public health infrastructure during the 1995 Zaire outbreak. A lot of the problems during this outbreak were mirrored during the recent Covid pandemic. Corruption, poor countries receiving inadequate international response, conspiracy theories, and responses that were too little too late. The biggest takeaway for me was that “those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

[Shana Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise account of the 1995 Ebola outbreak. While well-written and informative, I was disappointed that it was solely about the '95 outbreak and did not explain the 2014 outbreak (which was my fault for not fully reading the description). Garrett, as she was in her outstanding The Coming Plague, synthesizes medical explanations with the political landscape and a large amount of human interest details.

[Ann Singer-Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating read! It’s so interesting how much press COVID gets yet we heard so little about the Ebola outbreak of 1995 in mainstream media. The Congolese unrest and Mobutu are also devastating parts of African history that I never recall learning about in school. This book was truly eye opening.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I’m more sensitive to it because I’ve seen the author’s social media, but she has a very condescending attitude to many of her subjects that is hard to ignore even in this short book.