Introduction

Abstract

Written in prose, this introduction gives the readers an explanation of the avoidable reasons behind the death of Patient Zero-the first Ebola fatality, a child. It laments on the fate of 'diseased Africa', made possible by those charged with the responsibility to protect not just her flora and fauna, but her environment, and her people. Proceeding from there, in the methodology section, an overview of some of the quantitative (i.e. mathematical and statistical) and qualitative tools that have been used to measure the connection between disease outbreak and fragility was presented. However, I argue that these tools are less effective to explain the connection between 'representation' (how the Ebola pandemic was imagined, understood, and theorised) and patterns and outcomes of the intervention strategies that were employed to case-manage the pandemic. To this end, I propose the use of discourse analysis/framing to understand the views and perspectives of the people affected by the pandemic. A discussion on the data gathering technique, including who played what role and where, was also explained. In the final subsection, a discussion on the relevance of this book, and the chapter layout of the individual chapters was also presented.