Scientist and international aid expert Marc Maxmeister provides a coherent narrative of the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, drawing heavily from the voices of people directly affected by the tragedy. In fourteen chapters it answers the burning questions about how it happened, what exactly happened, and why. It provides answers to the most important question - will Ebola be contained, and how?
The second half of the book shows how ground-breaking ideas from first-responder organizations intersect with the best ways to prevent the Ebola outbreak from spreading. Ebola is a crisis where many intractable problems corruption, fragile states, lack of trust, exploitation, fear mongering, profiteering, education, and complex systems. But innovators have offered solutions that resilience, behavior change, positive deviance, agile development, Lean Startup thinking, and technology that helps people make better decisions. In the final chapter, this book provides practical advice on what you can do to help, and inspiration from local leaders in Liberia and Sierra Leone who have already started to overcome this disease.
This quick read gives good, clear information about Ebola - about the disease itself, the current crisis in Africa, and real efforts that are making a difference. I really appreciated reading the words from people in areas of outbreak, rather than international news spin. There is clearly a need for more support for doctors and hospitals in the infected areas, and more celebration of the local efforts and solutions that are already improving and saving lives.
Five stars for the homage to local personalities; minus one star for not enough of it The book is refreshing and the author adroitely handles his limited first hand interactions with deeper insights into the basic drives of a population in peril. How will you act if your loved one is infected with Ebola? Fight or flee? I hope more aid workers will read this book and more will write like this. Most of all, I hope we the "beneficiary population will come out of the shadows and tell our own story.