BBC This World - Outbreak, The Truth About Ebola
Summary
TLDRThis gripping script recounts the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2014, detailing the initial missteps, the exponential spread, and the tragic consequences. It highlights the crucial role of international response, the heroism of health workers, and the pivotal change in behavior of the Liberian population that eventually helped control the epidemic. The narrative serves as a stark warning of the potential for future pandemics and the importance of preparedness.
Takeaways
- 😷 The 2014 Ebola outbreak was considered the worst in history, causing widespread panic and confusion as it spread rapidly across West Africa.
- 🌍 The outbreak began in Guinea with a suspected 'Patient Zero' and quickly spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, highlighting the interconnectedness of global health.
- 🦇 The initial source of the outbreak was believed to be bats nesting in a hollow tree, indicating the zoonotic origins of the Ebola virus.
- 🏥 Early misidentification of the disease as cholera or malaria delayed the response, allowing the virus to spread undetected for crucial early weeks.
- 📉 Lack of preparedness and resources in affected countries, particularly in healthcare infrastructure, exacerbated the outbreak's impact.
- 🤝 The World Health Organization (WHO) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were key in the response, but faced challenges due to disorganization and lack of experience with Ebola.
- 🚨 The WHO was criticized for its delayed response and for not declaring an international emergency sooner, which may have hindered a more rapid and coordinated global effort.
- 🛑 Cultural practices, such as the washing of bodies during funerals, contributed to the rapid spread of the virus within communities.
- 🏢 The outbreak exposed the need for better international coordination and preparedness for epidemics, as well as the importance of accurate and timely information sharing.
- 🛑 The response was further complicated by misinformation and fear among the public, leading to riots and resistance against quarantine measures.
- 🔄 The situation began to improve only when international aid and local behavioral changes started to have an impact, demonstrating the importance of community engagement in disease control.
Q & A
What was the initial reaction of the crowd when they saw a suspected Ebola victim escaping from the hospital?
-The crowd was screaming and shouting, wanting to kill the suspected Ebola victim, but they were too scared to come close due to fear of infection.
What was the general sentiment during the early days of the Ebola outbreak as described in the script?
-There was a sense of panic and fear, with some people even wondering if it was the end of the world and if everyone was going to die.
What is the significance of the term 'ground zero' in the context of the Ebola outbreak?
-Ground zero refers to the starting point of the Ebola outbreak, which was in Mandu Village where children discovered hundreds of bats nesting in a hollow tree, suggesting the bats may have carried the deadly virus.
Who is considered to be the 'patient zero' of the Ebola outbreak according to the script?
-Amir um Manu is considered to be 'patient zero' of the Ebola outbreak, as he was the first person known to have died from the virus during this particular outbreak.
How did traditional burial practices contribute to the spread of Ebola in West Africa?
-Traditional burial practices in West Africa involve the ritual washing of the body, which is highly infectious when it comes to Ebola. Mourners often touch the body at funerals, which facilitated the virus's transmission.
What was the role of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) during the Ebola outbreak?
-MSF, a charity with decades of experience with Ebola, set up a field hospital within 48 hours of the outbreak's identification in Gueckedou, and worked to isolate the sick, monitor contacts, and safely bury the dead.
Why was the World Health Organization (WHO) criticized for its response to the Ebola outbreak?
-The WHO was criticized for leaving the response in the hands of local officials in Guinea who had no experience with Ebola, for holding disorganized daily meetings without decisions being made, and for downplaying the scale of the epidemic.
What was the impact of the decision to treat Ebola victims at the State Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone?
-The decision led to the hospital being overrun with Ebola victims, who infected other patients and staff. This turned the hospital into a place that helped spread the outbreak rather than contain it.
How did the behavior of the people in Liberia contribute to the control of the Ebola outbreak?
-People in Liberia changed their behaviors by stopping the traditional nursing of the sick and adopting safe burial practices, which helped to slow down the spread of the virus.
What was the turning point that forced the WHO to declare the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern?
-The turning point was when an infected Liberian traveled to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. Although the outbreak in Nigeria was contained, it shocked the WHO into action.
What were the challenges faced by Ebola treatment centers, such as ELWA 3, during the peak of the outbreak?
-ELWA 3, like many other treatment centers, faced challenges such as being dangerously full, with people dying outside the center, and a lack of space to accommodate new patients, leading to feelings of helplessness and shame among the medical staff.
Outlines
😷 Ebola Outbreak Emergence and Initial Response
The script begins with a dramatic account of a suspected Ebola victim escaping from a hospital amidst panic and fear in September 2014. It sets the scene for the Ebola outbreak, describing the chaos and the struggle to control the situation. The narrative reflects on the initial complacency and the lack of preparedness that contributed to the rapid spread of the virus. The story also touches on the origins of the outbreak in Mandu Village, where children discovered bats carrying the deadly virus, and the subsequent failure to contain the virus as it spread across Guinea and West Africa.
🦇 Patient Zero and the Unfolding Crisis
This paragraph delves into the story of Amir,um Manu, considered to be patient zero of the Ebola outbreak. His family's tragic experience with the disease is detailed, highlighting the rapid transmission of the virus within the family and the community. The script discusses the challenges faced by local health workers who initially misdiagnosed the disease as cholera or malaria. It also describes the government's response, which involved sending a team of scientists to investigate, and the eventual identification of the Ebola virus in the blood samples of a teenager named Khalil.
🏥 The Struggle to Contain the Outbreak
The script describes the efforts of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to set up a field hospital in Gueckedou, the epicenter of the outbreak, and the challenges they faced in trying to isolate the sick and trace contacts. It outlines the World Health Organization's (WHO) initial missteps in handling the outbreak and the lack of coordination and manpower that hindered effective response. The narrative also touches on the government of Guinea's denial and attempts to hide the severity of the outbreak, leading to a missed opportunity to contain the virus when it first crossed borders.
🚨 Cross-Border Transmission and the Super Spreader Event
This paragraph discusses the cross-border transmission of Ebola from Guinea to Sierra Leone through the story of Louisi Kamano, who unknowingly carried the virus across the border. It details the missed opportunity by the WHO and the Sierra Leone government to act on the information about Louisi's illness. The script also recounts the tragic 'super spreader' event at the funeral of a renowned healer, Menor, which led to hundreds of deaths linked back to her burial, and the subsequent unchecked spread of the virus through Sierra Leone and Liberia.
🛑 Government Missteps and the Escalation of the Outbreak
The narrative criticizes the Sierra Leone government's decision to treat Ebola victims at a hospital not equipped for such infectious diseases, leading to the spread of the virus within the hospital. It also discusses the lack of a proper contact tracing system, which allowed the virus to spread undetected. The script highlights the dire situation at the hospital, with bodies piling up and the lack of adequate protection for healthcare workers, leading to a devastating impact on the staff and the community.
🚨 International Inaction and the Dire Need for Response
This paragraph describes the dire need for international response as the outbreak continued to escalate, with the WHO failing to declare an international emergency. It details the inadequate training of local staff and the shocking conditions they faced, with nurses filming their lack of protection and the overwhelming number of patients. The script also recounts the death of Dr. Khan, a leading medic, and the panic and rumors that further complicated the situation, leading to an angry mob attacking the hospital.
🌍 Global Awareness and International Mobilization
The script discusses the turning point when the world began to take notice of the Ebola outbreak, with the first cases appearing outside Africa, causing panic and forcing the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern. It outlines the formation of a high-level team in Geneva to manage the response and the urgent need for clinical management and public health expertise. The narrative also highlights the challenges of convincing wealthy governments to provide the necessary resources to combat the outbreak.
🏚️ The Humanitarian Crisis in West Point, Monrovia
This paragraph focuses on the dire situation in West Point, the most densely populated district of Monrovia, Liberia, where the outbreak took a devastating toll. It describes the lack of basic infrastructure, the overflow of Ebola clinics, and the government's crude and brutal response, which included forcibly isolating suspected Ebola patients in a makeshift center. The script recounts the storming of the holding center by protesters, the subsequent quarantine of West Point, and the tragic consequences of the military's involvement.
🛌 Overwhelmed Healthcare System and the Struggle for Survival
The narrative paints a grim picture of the overwhelmed healthcare system, with patients dying in the streets and healthcare workers struggling to manage the influx of patients. It details the experiences of MSF workers, who, despite their efforts, faced the horrifying reality of having to turn away patients due to lack of space. The script also recounts the personal story of Fenda, a mother who lost most of her family to Ebola, and the harrowing experiences of healthcare workers at the peak of the outbreak.
📉 The Turning Point: Behavioral Changes and International Aid
This paragraph discusses the turning point in the battle against Ebola, when cases began to drop sharply in Liberia due to changes in behavior among the population and a massive international response. It highlights the role of the United States and other countries in sending troops and medics, and the UN's creation of a new emergency mission to coordinate the response. The script also reflects on the fear of the disease spreading beyond Africa and the extraordinary efforts made to contain it.
🕊️ Lessons Learned and the Precedent Set by Ebola
The final paragraph of the script emphasizes the lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak and the need for better preparedness for future pandemics. It acknowledges the massive loss of life, with over 10,000 officially recorded deaths, and the many more unaccounted for. The narrative concludes with a warning that new diseases will continue to emerge and that the world must learn from its mistakes to be better prepared for the next pandemic.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ebola
💡Outbreak
💡MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières)
💡WHO (World Health Organization)
💡Quarantine
💡Super Spreader Event
💡Isolation Center
💡Contact Tracing
💡Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
💡Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
💡International Response
Highlights
A suspected Ebola victim escapes from a hospital, causing panic among the public.
The Ebola outbreak is described as the worst in history, with a rapid and uncontrollable spread.
The story of the Ebola virus spreading while the world wasn't looking, highlighting a global health failure.
The tragic case of 'patient zero' and the subsequent chain of transmission in a West African village.
Local health workers initially mistook Ebola for cholera or malaria, delaying the response.
The charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) sets up a field hospital within 48 hours of identifying the outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was criticized for its slow and inadequate response to the outbreak.
The outbreak's spread across borders, with the first case in Sierra Leone linked to traditional burial practices.
The government of Guinea's initial attempts to hide the outbreak's extent led to further complications.
The tragic missed opportunity to contain the virus due to miscommunication and lack of coordination.
The devastating impact of the virus on healthcare workers and the challenges faced in treating patients.
The social unrest and panic caused by the outbreak, including the quarantine of West Point in Monrovia.
The international response to the outbreak, including the deployment of troops and medics from various countries.
The importance of contact tracing in controlling the spread of Ebola and the initial failure to implement it effectively.
The turning point in the outbreak when behavioral changes and improved response efforts began to reduce cases.
The long-term impact of the Ebola outbreak on affected communities and the global health system.
The final death toll and the lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak, emphasizing the need for better preparedness.
Transcripts
[Music]
movia September
2014 a suspected Ebola victim has
escaped from
hospital I got a call saying that there
is a walker on his way down to the
market I hear and see the crowd of
people screaming and
shouting the crowd wants to kill him but
they're too scared to come close the
guys in the suits wrestle him to the
ground and lifts him into the back of
the
pickup it was like watching a zombie
movie it's just crazy it's pure
craziness where am I how did I end up
here was this just a bad
[Applause]
dream no it wasn't it was for
real this is the inside story of the
worst Eola outbreak
in history I start to wonder maybe this
is the end of the world maybe everybody
is going to die I was afraid it would
just be this like black plag with a this
inexorable spread across the continent
and Beyond it's the story of how aola
spread while the world wasn't
looking we felt that our whole country
was going to be destroyed we didn't know
how many people would
die the story of an avoidable tragedy we
said it over and over action needs to
happen now catastrophic
complacency I cannot hide it it was
wrong and
incompetence I was frankly Furious the
basic stuff wasn't happening on the
front lines and it's a warning to us all
there are going to be more of these no
matter what we think Ebola was not an
exception Ebola is a precedent because
you know what everybody got it wrong on
this
[Music]
[Music]
one
fore
this is aola Ground
Zero in December 2013 the children of
Mandu Village discovered hundreds of
bats nesting in a hollow
tree bats are thought to carry the
deadly
virus
fore
[Music]
[Music]
speee
[Music]
[Music]
for
then
moov
[Music]
at the time nobody knew what killed Amir
um Manu but he is now considered to be
patient zero of the worst Ebola outbreak
in
history his sister died 9 days
later then his mother fell ill she was 7
months
[Music]
pregnant
[Music]
my
[Music]
within days more of ean's family fell
sick and
died the Ebola virus is transmitted by
direct contact with blood and other
bodily
fluids but the villagers had never heard
[Music]
[Music]
Thea a traditional healer gathered
everyone together including the
[Music]
sick
Emil's grandmother now fell
sick she traveled to a hospital in a
nearby
Town Eola was spreading killing people
across the forest region of
Guinea but for three months local health
workers thought it was chalera or
malaria
by March the virus had traveled hundreds
of miles and killed more than 50
people the government sent a team of
scientists to investigate and take blood
samples
minister
[Music]
the doctor tracked down a teenager
called Khalil who was sick with the
mystery
disease his colleague started filming on
an
[Music]
iPad
l
oh khalil's blood was tested and the
scientists found a match
Eola
[Music]
Abola was unknown in West Africa every
previous outbreak had happened thousands
of miles
away the government of Guinea one of the
poorest countries in the world had no
idea how to
respond but the charity medon s Frontier
msf has Decades of experience with
ebola within 48 hours they set up a
field Hospital in the town of gadoo the
epicenter of the
outbreak the first patients began to
arrive
most of those cases came from different
Villages or different areas in the city
of gedu that's a very bad sign because
it means that you don't have just one
cluster or one family or one Village
that is hit it means that it's already
spread
out past outbreaks had shown that the
key to stopping Ebola is to isolate the
sick monitor anyone who had contact with
the infected and safely bury the dead
this complex of operation now needed a
level of Manpower and coordination far
beyond the resources of
msf and I remember my headquarters asked
me like what do you think is it five
villagers or 10 Villages or 15 Villages
or more and I remember I said if I have
to choose between those three options I
do believe it's 15 or
more then I said like I think we have a
big
problem the World Health Organization
the wh has a remit to help governments
coordinate the response to deadly
outbreaks we deal with and hear about
literally hundreds of outbreaks during
the year so this is one of many reports
at that time that there's something
going on here is a disease that we have
dealt with for a number of decades
before and in our own mind we had the
idea that Ebola was something which was
severe but typically occurred in a
certain way and that could be handled
when we didn't really know how how
complex it was going to
[Music]
become the who left the response in the
hands of its local officials in Guinea
who had no experience of
Eola they set up what would become daily
meetings with the government of Guinea
msf and other Aid
organizations those daily meetings were
a nightmare every day
every day day after day dis organized
meeting no decision taken no one knowing
what they were talking about wh people
were really not at the level required
for the job their coordinator never
worked on Eola before and the W was
really downsizing the scale of the
epidemic and we contradicting our own
statements immediately I thought those
people are useless they they don't even
understand what they supposed to do here
from the start there was a fatal
confusion about who was in
charge W although it's a very important
technical agency our powers are limited
when we're operating in countries the
countries Take the Lead we advise
honestly and this is what we try to do
in
Guinea msf's greatest fear was that the
virus would enter a crowd at African
[Music]
City and in the face of the chaotic
response that's just what
happened Abola hit the capital of Guinea
[Music]
conre msf decided to sound the
alarm
the government of Guinea was furious
with msf for going public with their
concerns the last thing they wanted was
an ebola Panic causing foreign companies
to pull out of the
country
for
the government now tried to hide the
true extent of the
outbreak the Ministry of Health sent a
memo to its teams in the field ordering
them only to count laboratory confirmed
cases of Ebola when in reality many
people were dying before they could be
tested
for
[Music]
the Ministry of Health in Guinea ignored
many deaths that were probable Ebola
cases some of these deaths were in The
Villages along the international border
with Sierra
Leon louisi kamano lived in neighboring
Sierra Leon but had family in Guinea and
came there when her mother fell
ill
when ly fell sick she was frightened by
rumors that foreign doctors were killing
people
[Music]
ill and frightened louisi decided to
head home she walked through the bush
until she reached a
river it was the border with Sierra Leon
there were no checkpoints no immigration
police
on the other side of the Border louisi
hired a motorbike taxi to take her to
her
Village no one knew it yet but aola had
arrived in Sierra
[Applause]
Leon
what happened next was a tragic missed
opportunity to save
lives the who were tipped off that
louisi was sick and had crossed the
border Louise's name and location were
logged in an internal report and passed
on to the Sierra Leon
government we did bring Louise to the
attention of the seron government and
they came back and told us that Louise
had gone back to guina and that they was
no she was not in
seron that was the last that we heard of
this particular
case the Sierra Leon government denies
it was ever informed about
louisi the opportunity was missed and
the disease was soon spread through her
Village the death of one particular
victim was about to take the outbreak to
another
level Menor was a renowned
healer she soon succumbed to the virus
and her body was prepared for
burial the corpse of an Ebola victim is
highly infectious but in West Africa
funerals involve the ritual washing of
the
body
[Music]
burial practices played a major role in
the spread of the
virus mourners often touch the body at
the funeral at
self the villagers feared that if they
didn't bury Menor properly there would
be
consequences Menor was a local celebrity
and hundreds came to her funeral it was
a
catastrophe scientists were later to
call it a super spreader event and ultim
ately linked hundreds of deaths back to
menor's
burial the outbreak was already raging
in Guinea and now it began to spread
unchecked through the Villages of Sierra
Leon wiping out entire
families the heer's niece even carried
the virus 300 miles to Monrovia the
capital of neighboring
Liberia nobody knew it but the outbreak
was now completely out of
control
for more than a month the government of
Sierra Leon missed the deaths in its
border Villages msf tried to get them to
investigate but the government did
little they had turned for advice to an
American company called metabiota who
had a long-standing presence in the
country researching tropical diseases
but metabiota had no experience in
controlling Eola
epidemics I said this outbreak will not
last more than few weeks and that was
after we identify the first week the
first two weeks we said okay that's a
normal outbreak we are confident it will
be over in two
months we were getting advice from
metabot and our complicance is set in
what can I say the yes it was Ebola but
the magnitude had not hit us so we took
steps at that time that were advised by
metabiota but we never knew that it was
going to be so
big the government then made a decision
that would cost many
lives they decided to treat Eola victims
at the State Hospital in in the town of
Kena which already had a ward for Lassa
fever a disease similar to Ebola but
less
infectious the director of the clinic Dr
shik Omar Khan was a world expert in
Lassa fever and one of Sierra Leon's top
Medics Sy place
[Music]
but within days his hospital was overrun
with a bowl of
victims they infected other patients
then the nurses started to
die if you go to the Mob you see dead
bodies 15 16 17 18 dead bodies all in in
body
bags then I start to wonder what is
happening maybe this is the end of the
world maybe everybody is going to
die far from containing the outbreak the
hospital was helping to spread it will
py a British nurse volunteered to work
on the Abola ward he was shocked by what
he
found when a patient arrived they'd walk
in past these corpses that would be
piling up across the path and sometimes
next to the path smelling quite bad
until um the barrel team came and it
might take days I was constantly Gob
smacked that this wasn't a bigger deal
like people people weren't you know that
this wasn't being shouted
about the government called in
msf the plan was to build a specialist
Ebola clinic in the neighboring
District msf officials say that the
government's advisers metab by otter
were still underestimating the scale of
the problem
[Music]
do you think met was the right
organization to be doing outbreak
response no sure we are not specializing
in outbreak response we know how to do
it because we have some kind of
expertise in the domain but we are too
small I mean we have a very small
company the truth was that nobody knew
how bad things were because metabiota
and the government had no working system
to investigate who Ebola victims had
been in contact with this lack of what's
called Contact tracing meant that
hundreds of cases went
undetected contact tracing out six where
we got it
wrong we' wasted like a month and a
month is a disaster is a disaster yes we
wasted time we lose a lot of lives and
we would have done much
better and we really followed up the
chain of transmission better
it was
wrong
Yeah by June 7 months after patient zero
the outbreak covered three countries
Guinea Sierra Leon and Liberia four
neighboring countries were at risk of
imminent
infection it was now the biggest Ebola
outbreak the world world had ever seen
But the wh decided not to declare an
international
emergency at that time I think all of us
thought wait a minute let's be cautious
let's see how it evolves we are
deploying people in the field we think
we are making headways but with
hindsight if I went back to June
2014 I'll probably be saying something
entirely different I'll probably be
standing up and calling my director
General saying please do it while the
virus raged out of control the who
opened a new outbreak coordination
office in West Africa but they did
little to address the shortage of Medics
and
hospitals there was absolutely no change
at field level still the very same few
organization on the ground doing the
work no additional people coming to
support more people at coordination
level more meetings to be organized
but on the ground in the field impact
[Music]
zero back at Cana Hospital in Sierra
Leone the staff desperately needed
help the who had sent two doctors to
help with the cas load but the locals
had had almost no training in infection
control the nurses began filming the
shocking
conditions one morning a sick teenager
turned up at the clinic the footage
shows how little protection the nurses
had this boy was hi uping it's classical
signs and symptoms his mouth was
bleeding blood you can see blood from
his lips all over you can see his eyes
red eyes hi uping HIC uping I would say
oh my God God we are really exposing
ourselves because if you see that
patient he was standing very close to me
and other people were very closed by the
patients they are not in protective
PP then the man I called I say come and
take this patient the only dress that
the person did was disposable gown and
you see him grabbing this P oh my
God you'd have to be crazy to think that
anything but shutting that place down
would be the thing to do and everyone
knew that's what needed to happen and
that should have happened months before
that and had that have happened there's
a whole cohort of nurses lab techs and
cleaners that wouldn't have
died so many lives would have been
saved Dr Khan the director of the
hospital had been working long days in
the high risk Zone for
weeks now he called the nurses together
to try to teach them how to avoid
infection don't anything
church
[Music]
church in that meeting Dr KH was telling
the health workers this is a national
sacrifice and it's everybody's
responsibility and he was even saying
that look at me is this the way I look
like before Look at me now he was just
encouraging the
nurses nobody knew it yet but the doctor
himself was already
infected 3 Days Later Dr KH developed a
fever and tested positive for
Ebola
Panic now spread through the town along
with wild rumors that the hospital staff
were murdering
people this crazy woman came home and
stood right at the center of the town in
the marketplace and started shouting
there's no Ebola
Eola
I
iism this woman was shouting I am a
nurse I am telling you people that we
are just cannibal doing
cannibalism we are the one that are
killing people we are removing their
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
parts and everybody in the marketplace
is a Haywire Running Oh there's no Eola
a nurse is confessing that there no
Ebola come and see the NSE come and see
a nurse is
confessing now everybody started
throwing stones at us they said we are
going to the hospital we are going to B
the K government Hospital
down so some of the nurses because they
run out for their
lives I was walking up to the unit and
there was this stream of nurses and lab
techs walking at a very hurried Pace
past me in the other direction and I
could hear this mob an angry mob it's a
it's a really uh it's a unique sound and
uh the wh they all evacuated so they all
got into their cars and drove off
leaving just a handful of people
probably inside the whole hospital
really when when there's a risk of the
hospital being
overrun the police used teust to
disperse the
crowd the streets went quiet for
now but Sierra Leon was on a knife
[Applause]
[Music]
edge 4 days later Dr Khan
[Music]
died it was a massive blow to the
country he was a hero the
figurehead until then I'd I'd been a bit
worried at that point I really sat down
and thought about my chances but leaving
wasn't really an option anymore because
how bad the situation was so for me to
turn around and just run away at that
point would just that's not it wouldn't
have been
possible 3 weeks later will pulley fell
ill a British man who's contracted the
Ebola virus is being flown tonight by
RAF jet to an isolation unit at a
hospital in London the moment Ebola
arrived in Britain getting word in from
the CDC it's confirmed the first Ebola
case di infected missionaries flown from
Liberia and in isolation at an Atlanta
at last 8 months into the outbreak the
world was finally waking up to the
unfolding
disaster the outbreak had now killed
more than 800 people
in three countries yet there was still
no major International
response msf had been urging the who to
declare an international
[Music]
emergency I said that I've been telling
the world for the last few months that
it's a unprecedented out of control a
Bola epidemic I don't have the authority
people don't listen to me but you you
need to step up to the plate and declare
it because you have the
authority and you have the
legitimate it was what the virus did
next that finally forced the who to act
an infected Liberian traveled to
Nigeria Africa's most populous country
the outbreak there was contained but the
episode shocked the who into
action I am declaring the current
outbreak of Ebola virus disease a public
health emergency of international
concern the committee acknowledges the
serious and unusual nature of the
outbreak and the potential for further
International
spread the wh put a high level team of
experts in Geneva in charge of the
response these are they faced a daunting
task also on is for all of us we were
looking at one of the most dangerous
pathogens that we knew growing at an
exponential rate across a broad
Geographic error something we had never
seen
before we needed clinical management
people to go in there and manage the
Ebola cases we needed Public Health
expertise on the ground to be able to do
the contact tracing and I realized that
capacity to manage something on this
scale doesn't
exist the who now had a plan but nobody
body to carry it out they needed to
convince wealthy governments to provide
money and
Manpower and time was against them
because the outbreak was about to enter
its most shocking and deadly
[Music]
phase West Point the most densely
populated District of
Monrovia capital of Liberia
75,000 people live in less than a square
mile there's no running water or
sanitation perfect conditions for the
spread of
Eola the first deaths were in the home
of
feral lady Happ
family start
dying there my own
say
m
sister
toy
FL
[Music]
I was called by the minister of Health
to say that people were
dying total total confusion chaos
disbelief
fear no means to response because we
didn't have the knowledge we didn't have
equipment we didn't have the means
whereby we could attend to
people we did not have full
awareness of how quickly this disease
could spread how deadly this disease was
we we were confounded because it just
spread so rapidly in the
communities Monrovia had one small Ebola
clinic and it was soon full desperate
patients had nowhere to
go by now msf were
overstretched they were struggling to
construct a new 400 bed
clinic in the meantime the government
response was crude and
brutal
anyone suspected of having Eola was
simply dumped in a makeshift isolation
Center an empty School in the West Point
slum finder whose husband had just died
was forced to come here with her six
children even though none of them
appeared to be
sick only man no medicine no clo
the center had no doctors and no
separation between the sick and the
healthy very quickly it was completely
contaminated finder's son sasco fell
sick I
am
Med a
cry
call made in my
[Music]
head outside West Point was growing
tense
the government was shipping patients
from all over the city into the
isolation Center the slum was becoming
The Dumping Ground for all of monrovia's
Ebola
victims and once again rumors were
spreading that Ebola was a hoax a
conspiracy to kill poor
Africans Just 4 days after it opened
protesters stormed the Holding
Center
they came they B all the patient out one
L boy who was 6 to 7 years old he was
lying on the
Maness at that time he was dead l a body
on the ground and remove the
mess I couldn't believe it for human
being to come bare feet with naked hands
touching even body that Ebola kill and
they saw the blood on the floor they saw
fluid on the floor and they marching the
fluid with their
feet people looted mattresses and sheets
contaminated with the virus and the
Ebola victims disappeared back into the
[Music]
slum
you
West Point was now out of
control fellow citizens it has become
necessary to impose additional sanctions
the communities of West Point in
Monrovia are quarantined Ed and a full
security
watch this means there will be no
movements in and out of those
areas we
ordered the military to quarantine the
place to stop anybody from leaving our
fear was people would run away and come
from there and then go into other
communities that's why we did
that
[Applause]
[Music]
as panic and anger swept through the
slum the Army opened fire with live
ammunition a 14-year-old boy was shot
and later
[Applause]
died the use of soldiers was a
mistake the whole military approach was
really ill thought out picture of this
young man with his leg shattered was
placed into everybody's Consciousness at
that point some of the young people were
calling for anybody to do anything
calling them to
Rebel at this stage I think we felt that
our whole country was going to be
destroyed the military Cordon didn't
work Ebola was already all over the city
and inside the West Point slum the sick
had nowhere to go except the streets so
the virus spread more
quickly a local filmmaker who found a
way past the
Cordon discovered finder and her
children homeless and sick with
Eola by now her son Sasa was
dead the rest of the children
desperately needed
help get no for go anywhere I on the
street I sleep on the
[Music]
street
people
mebody
[Music]
as West Point descended into
hopelessness and despair msf had been
frantically constructing El 3 the
biggest Ebola Hospital ever
built but when it opened it was clear it
would not be
enough Brett Adamson was msf's field
coordinator people were dying outside
families were dying in taxi cabs
outside they were arriving seeking care
the families had nowhere else to go the
center was full and essentially they
were wait you know the center was
waiting for someone to die to then make
space Stefan ljan was recruited at short
notice to work at the hospital like many
of the team he had no aola experience I
arrive and there are mattresses just
next to each other full of people and
and they're dead and I look like at them
and okay so that's how a dead person
look
like they're telling me that Stefan we
can't just watch we need to go in and
move bodies are you ready for it and I
start to panic and my pulse goes very
high there are dead bodies in there and
in gruesome
positions we go to the next one and
there are dead bodies in there as well
and we go up to a man in a in a
chair the the guy with the spray goes up
and he starts spraying his face and
that's when it really hits you yeah he
is he is really dead and we place out
the the body bag and sip him up and and
we carry him away and family are crying
and screaming and yelling and
and or many are in
panic that was my first day with a
bolo a normal medical round for me would
be going in pronouncing five or six
people dead and it's extremely horrible
because people are
dying sometimes uh very distressing
deaths beside a child the mother that
was trying to care for her child dead
and then you got a baby and trying to
work out how on Earth are you going to
try and deal with an unaccompanied child
in an over full
Center it was really
hard it's just so far beyond what could
normally be expected of humanitarian
workers I would
say the pointlessness of it if that's
what it felt like you know normally if
you work to the point of exhaustion you
you can come away from something and
feel a degree of satisfaction knowing
that you did what you could I didn't
feel any satisfaction at
all the shame of having to turn away in
Ebola patient there's no greater example
of a failure of a response when that
happened it was never about feeling like
you failed in the level of medical
acuity we did everything we could it was
about feeling the shame of what the
world had to offer for L Veria at that
time and yeah the sheen number of death
was just really seeing
[Music]
death after sleeping on the streets for
5 days Fender and her surviving children
were finally picked up by an ambulance
crew in West
Point
they were taken to the new msf
clinic but when they
arrived there was no room for
them it's just crazy to stand there and
look in the face of people and tell them
that there is no
space it's it's surreal really
surreal if you had to make a choice who
do you
take if I have to take someone I have to
take this woman that lies on the ground
here she is very very sick and if I have
to take someone I have to take her I
can't take you there is no space for you
here
today eventually the msf found room for
finder and the
children but by now finder's youngest
boy tumber was slipping
away cry say mama not
[Music]
mama
baby
[Music]
Eola killed most of finder's
family three of her children died as did
her husband her mother and her
sister Fender herself and three of her
children survived and returned to West
Point
msf were now at Breaking
Point their Treatment Center was
dangerously
[Music]
full the organization made a direct plea
to the United States to provide
thousands of soldiers to help isolate
and treat
patients the director of the US Centers
for Disease Control and prevention came
to Monrovia to see the situation for
himself I still get goosebumps thinking
about it and I will never forget the
experience I've worked all over the
world for decades in public health I've
seen starvation I've seen epidemics but
in elwa 3 I saw a level of Devastation
that I've never seen where you had
people dying in a health care facility
and not enough people to remove the Dead
I went into one of the tents and there
was a woman lying on the ground uh she
had beautifully plated hair when I
looked more closely I realized that she
was dead and the staff were too busy
trying to care for the living to even
remove
her it was driving around Monrovia and
seeing dead bodies on the street it was
seeing a country essentially in freef
fall and knowing knowing with certainty
that no matter what we did it was going
to get a lot worse before it got
better Tom freden called President Obama
I was frankly Furious what I said was
that this isn't about response in the
next 3 months it's response in the next
3 days that matters cases were
increasing exponentially they were
doubling every 3 weeks each month of
delay would result in a tripling of
cases the world still has an opportunity
to save countless
lives right now the world has the
responsibility to act to step up and to
do
more 10 months after the outbreak began
the fight back was
underway the United States sent in
thousands of troops and Medics and the
UK and other countries followed
suit the UN created a new new emergency
mission to coordinate the
response work began building new
treatment centers and training burial
teams but the virus was still running
ahead of the medics in an age of cheap
international travel the disease
threatened to spread Beyond Africa cases
in Spain Britain and America forced the
disease into the headlines around the
world a second healthcare worker in
Dallas has tested positive for the Ebola
virus Public Health officials confirmed
the first human to human transmission of
Ebola in the
US we definitely arrive too late I mean
there's no doubt about
that I was absolutely petrified our plan
wasn't going to work I was scared to
death I was afraid it would just be this
like black plade with a this inexorable
spread across the continent and Beyond
we are also deathly afraid that uh
someone would get on a plane and go to
Daka or Jakarta or Johannesburg
somewhere and land in a urban setting
and Ebola get totally out of control we
didn't have a plan
[Music]
B then in Monrovia something
extraordinary
happened cases began to drop
sharply when we saw the number St to go
down I was really worried was caused for
more concern than Jubilation because the
response still seemed so inadequate that
it was inconceivable that it could be
successful and of course the fear is
that if people are not presenting that
they were staying at home which means if
they're staying at home they're
infecting more people that then the
curve would bounce back in a much more
dramatic way and that was the
fear but the dro in numbers was real
with death all around them millions of
liberians were changing how they lived
their lives they stopped trying to nurse
their sick and began to bury their dead
safely the entire Monrovia knew Ebola
was real Ebola kills Ebola is going to
kill me unless I do one or two things
differently there was a huge fear and
they changed their behaviors in ways
which suddenly slowed down and took the
heat out of this thing because remember
this virus can only go to person to
person and that's what turned it around
liberians turned their country around we
got in there a little bit afterward and
took a lot of
credit thousands more were still to die
across West Africa but the changing
behavior of the population and the
massive International response gradually
turned the
tide today the battle against a bowler
is still far from over a quicker and
better International response could have
saved many
lives officially more than 10,000 people
have
died the true figure is much
higher 37 health workers died at the
Kena government hospital here 37
including doctors nurses
pters cleaners
Securities lab
technicians 37 of them died in this
Hospital nurse Rebecca Alex mboy Nancy
Yoko sister
Balo Dr Khan nurse Alice IP
Bor sometimes the world is going to
learn things the hard way there are
going to be more of these no matter what
we think Ebola was not an exception
Ebola is a
precedent Tasco s
year 4
[Music]
year
more and more new diseases are emerging
we've seen pandemic flu we've seen SARS
we've seen Ebola like this so there will
be more of these and we are not prepared
because you know what everybody got it
wrong on this
one am
[Music]
Mee
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)