It may sound like the plot of a movie: police find a young man dead with stab wounds. Tests quickly show he'd had Ebola.
Officials realize the suspects in the case, men in a local gang, may have picked up and spread Ebola across the slum. These men are reluctant to quarantine themselves and some – including a man nicknamed "Time Bomb" – cannot even be found.
This scenario actually unfolded in the West African country of Liberia in 2015. And what followed was a truly unconventional effort by epidemiologists to stop a new Ebola outbreak.
On today's Radio Replay, we hear how those epidemiologists built trust to prevent an epidemic. Then, we talk with author Tim Harford about the surprising benefits of messiness and chaos in our everyday lives.
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