Getting to Zero: A Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Frontline

In 2014, a twenty-eighty-year old British doctor found himself running the Ebola isolation unit in Sierra Leone’s largest hospital after the virus killed the doctor in charge. Completely overwhelmed and wrapped in stifling protective suits, he and his colleagues took turns providing basic care to patients while removing dead bodies from the ward. Facing incredible odds, the doctor battled to keep the hospital open, as the line of sick and dying patients grew every day. Only a few miles down the road, the Irish Ambassador and head of Irish Aid realized they were facing a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale. Knowing that aid would only come with international attention, she worked relentlessly to push the country’s plight into the global spotlight. At a time when entire districts had been quarantined, she travelled around the country to meet with UN agencies as well as Sierra Leone’s president and senior ministers, hoping to secure help in time to stop the spread of the horrifying disease. In this blow-by-blow account, Walsh and Johnson relate what it was like to work on the frontlines of an epidemic. They expose the often-shocking shortcomings of the humanitarian response to the scourge, both locally and internationally. They also profile the immense courage of those who put their lives on the line every day to contain the disease. Both harrowing and hopeful, their story is the definitive account of the fight against an epidemic that shook the world.