Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus, David Quammen (ISBN 978-0393351552, W. W. Norton)

Elsewhere on this blog I wrote about Spillover by David Quammen. That book covers a number of so called zoonoses, diseases that can be transmitted from non-human animals to humans. Ebola is one example discussed in Spillover. When the book came out late 2012 it was in the middle of a series of Ebola outbreaks. Obviously those outbreaks were not covered in Spillover. The book discussed here is actually the extract of chapters in Spillover covering Ebola and updated with additional material covering those later outbreaks. The additions mainly cover new insights about the identity of the host animal for Ebola that were derived from the latest outbreaks. By itself this is a very well written book just like Spillover but with the additional insights it covers Ebola more completely. Still, if you haven’t read Spillover yet I would recommend reading that book first as it is broader in its analysis of zoonoses. But if you have special interest in Ebola and don’t want to spend time reading about the other diseases then this is definitely also recommended. Or, if you liked reading Spillover and want to read the updated chapter about Ebola you won’t regret having spent your time reading this short book (roughly 120 pages).

The WHO has a page on the topic of zoonoses if you want to read more. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a page listing the history of Ebola outbreaks.