The Zaire Ebola virus appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared into thin air after killing scores of humans in West Africa. In The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, author Constantine N. Nana attempts to better understand the outbreak and answer the question: why? Through meticulous research, combing through misleading media reports and equivocal academic papers, Nana takes a close look at the chain of events. He raises a series of questions: • Why were there Ebola experts in the region shortly before the outbreak? • Why did the Sierra Leonean government order a research institution to stop "Ebola testing" during the outbreak? • Why did the United States' government decline to renew funding for one of the research programs during the crisis? • Why did one of the key researchers state that the epidemic may have been caused by a contaminated needle? • Did the initial outbreak really originate with a two-year-old child in an isolated area? In The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, Nana challenges standard explanations of the virus' origins and demonstrates that many questions remain unanswered.