BBC This World - Outbreak, The Truth About Ebola

Summary

This 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

00:00

😷 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.

05:01

🦇 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.

10:01

🏥 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.

15:07

🚨 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.

20:16

🛑 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.

25:17

🚨 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.

30:18

🌍 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.

35:19

🏚️ 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.

40:21

🛌 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.

45:24

📉 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.

50:26

🕊️ 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.

Keywords

💡Ebola

Ebola is a severe, often fatal illness in humans caused by the Ebola virus. It is characterized by symptoms like fever, internal and external bleeding, and organ failure. In the video, Ebola is the central theme, representing the disease that caused a major outbreak in West Africa, leading to a significant number of deaths and a global health crisis.

💡Outbreak

An outbreak refers to a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected. In the context of the video, the term is used to describe the rapid spread of the Ebola virus, which overwhelmed local healthcare systems and led to a public health emergency.

💡MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières)

MSF, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, is an international humanitarian medical organization that provides aid in regions affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. In the video, MSF plays a crucial role in the response to the Ebola outbreak, setting up field hospitals and advocating for action.

💡WHO (World Health Organization)

The WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. It is mentioned in the video in the context of its role in coordinating the global response to the Ebola outbreak, including declaring a public health emergency of international concern.

💡Quarantine

Quarantine is a public health practice of separating and restricting the movement of people who may have been exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. In the script, the term is used to describe measures taken to contain the spread of Ebola, such as the quarantine of West Point in Monrovia.

💡Super Spreader Event

A super spreader event refers to an instance where a single person or a small group of people infect a large number of others with a disease. In the video, the funeral of a healer named Menor is described as a super spreader event, which contributed to the exponential growth of the Ebola outbreak.

💡Isolation Center

An isolation center is a facility where individuals who are infected with a contagious disease are kept separate from the general population to prevent the spread of the disease. The script describes the makeshift isolation center in West Point, which was overwhelmed and eventually stormed by protesters.

💡Contact Tracing

Contact tracing is the process of identifying and following up with people who have come into close contact with someone infected with a disease. In the video, the lack of effective contact tracing is cited as a critical failure in the early response to the Ebola outbreak, allowing the virus to spread undetected.

💡Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)

EVD, also known as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, is a disease of humans and other primates caused by the Ebola virus. The term is used in the video to refer to the specific disease caused by the Ebola virus, emphasizing the severity and impact of the outbreak.

💡Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

A PHEIC is a formal declaration by the WHO that a disease outbreak is an extraordinary event that poses a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response. The video mentions the declaration of the Ebola outbreak as a PHEIC as a turning point that spurred a more significant global response.

💡International Response

The international response refers to the collective actions taken by various countries, organizations, and agencies to address a crisis that has global implications. In the video, the international response to the Ebola outbreak is depicted as initially slow but eventually ramping up with the involvement of countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

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