Original subtitles

Tonight onnova-- inside an outbreak of ebola.

Man: I was very scared that this could get out of control.

You walked through the streets and people were dying.

Is this virus a threat to the entire world?

Man: I think there's a very real possibility

That ebola could come out of africa to the west.

Nova enters the hot zone

With the team assigned to isolate and contain

This deadly emerging virus.

[Captioning sponsored by merck, raytheon

The corporation for public broadcasting

And public television viewers]

Funding for nova is provided by raytheon.

Narrator: these bodies are too hot to touch

The remains of a disease so virulent, so fearsome

That funeral rites are abandoned

And bodies are left for crude mass burials

By corpse disposal squads.

Kikwit, zaire, April 1995--

One outbreak in one community in one country.

But could it become the next plague?

Man: we have no protection from these diseases.

We cannot be isolationist in our thinking anymore.

The world is a small community of nations

And when one coughs, nobody sleeps.

Newscaster: in zaire, they're using quarantines

And a public health campaign...

Newscaster: the government of zaire took fresh steps today

To stop the spread of a lethal virus.

It is a terrifying killer.

There is no vaccine and no cure.

Newscaster: the survival rate here is zero.

Narrator: blood and tissue samples taken from the victims

Are rushed to scientists

At the centers for disease control in Atlanta, Georgia.

Within hours, their worst fears are realized.

The killer is ebola, one of the deadliest viruses on earth.

It can cause a human host to bleed to death

In a matter of days.

Man: I think there's a very real possibility

That ebola could come out of africa to the west

So we've got to get to the bottom

Of what controls the circulation of this virus

And what controls its ability to hop over into humans

And what controls its possibilities for spread.

Narrator: ebola is a scientific enigma.

Since little is known about how it's transmitted

Once an outbreak begins, no place on earth is safe.

The c.d.c. Sounds the alarm

And a medical swat team from all over the world

Converges on kikwit, ground zero of the outbreak.

Ebola is a formidable enemy.

These scientists are risking their lives

On the front line of the battle.

Their mission is to stop the virus

And find out where it came from.

They greet each other with the kikwit handshake--

Elbow to elbow, to minimize contact.

As the scientists make their way from the airport

They find themselves in a city gripped by terror.

The fear of ebola is spreading.

Thousands are trying to flee.

But a military quarantine has been imposed.

The international team sets up a command post.

They join forces with a group of zairian doctors

Who have flown in from the capital.

Translator: we're very glad to meet so many courageous people from abroad.

It's what inspires us

And encourages us to fight this till the end.

Our families were in tears

When we left the capital of Kinshasa to come here

Because they knew we were traveling towards death.

My wife believes in reincarnation

So the first thing she said was

"If you die over there, I'll kill you"

Which wasn't very...

You know, it didn't carry a lot of weight.

And then she says, "If you die over there

"I will hunt you down through the ages and your future lives

And will kill you."

So I'm being very careful.

Good morning, how are you?

Narrator: the first priority is clear: find every case and isolate it--

The only way the epidemic can be stopped.

We need to talk about it in terms of forms.

Narrator: an epidemiologist with the c.d.c.

Dr. Ali Khan establishes procedures

For documenting every victim.

I heard about this person, and I heard about this person

Or I only know about this person.

Narrator: missing even a single one could spell disaster.

...missing from here because I don't have any forms

But you say you know about them.

Man: yes, yes.

Narrator: the team fans out across the city to look for new cases.

Along the way, they hope to gather information

That will help them understand this mysterious virus.

Kilmarx: this is an incredible opportunity.

There's not a ebola outbreak very often

And I just have to keep remembering

"Do the surveillance as it contributes to disease control."

So you're very tempted to go off in 20 different directions

And start 20 different studies at the same time.

Narrator: this is not the first time that ebola has struck zaire.

Almost 20 years before, in 1976

An outbreak erupted in a hospital

In the town of yambuku, 1,000 kilometers to the north.

The disease spread rapidly

Killing nine out of ten of its victims

Leaving nearly 400 dead.

An international team arrived late

And had little opportunity to investigate the outbreak.

The epidemic was stopped when village elders

Ordered the temporary abandonment

Of traditional burial ceremonies

Which involved touching the corpse.

Instead, they quarantined villages

And burned down the huts of the dead.

The 1995 epidemic also began at a hospital.

Man: when we got there, the hospital was essentially deserted--

The major hospital in kikwit.

There was a scattered patient here or there

Many of whom had not been fed for days on time

And we walked through that hospital the first night

And it's the sort of memories that you retain for a lifetime.

The local situation was so bad from the medical point of view

That we, at least two of us

Were involved in the cleaning of the ward.

But there were still dead people in the building

And the condition of work was very bad--

The safety protection for the workers were absent

And not available for them.

Narrator: the outbreak was traced back to a surgical procedure

Performed on a young lab worker named kimfumu.

Three nurses who had assisted at the operation soon fell ill.

Taking no special precautions

Fellow hospital workers attended to their needs, washing them

And coming into contact with their bodily fluids.

Within weeks, 36 hospital workers--

Doctors, nurses and attendants-- had died

And most of the survivors had fled.

Translator: the government asked zairian doctors

For volunteers to come here.

For at least two weeks, they didn't find any.

But after a while, we said that we'll go

To investigate and do research.

It's at times like this

That you can be part of medical history in the making.

We said to ourselves, "We're doctors.

"It's like the army-- we're soldiers.

We'll go and face the danger."

Narrator: outside the hospital

The grieving families of the sick and dying

Pray for their recovery

While the medical staff takes elaborate precautions

To avoid infection.

Despite the sweltering heat

The safety procedures

Established by the international team

Require four layers of protective gear.

A moat, filled with bleach, is the only barrier

Between the ebola ward and the outside world.

Unlike h.i.v., ebola is a Hardy virus

That can survive outside the human body.

Any contact with patients or their surroundings

May prove fatal.

The virus has been found in tears, blood

Even on the surface of the skin.

Internally, it attacks the vital organs

Often causing massive bleeding inside and out.

There is no cure or treatment.

Death usually comes within ten days.

Man: elle est au stade terminal.

Translator: she's in the terminal stages.

There's nothing to be done.

There's her husband.

Narrator: patients in the early stages of the disease

Can only look on at what is likely to be their fate.

This week alone, there have been 52 new deaths in kikwit.

The plague-fighting efforts of the international team

Have not begun to take hold.

The terrifying effects of this disease

Were seen for the first time in europe.

During the summer of 1967

In the quiet German town of marburg

Workers at a pharmaceutical plant

Began dying of a mysterious ailment.

The victims developed a strange rash.

Their skin tore easily.

The eyeballs filled up with blood.

Their faces became fixed, zombie-like.

They vomited black fluid

And discharged blood from every orifice.

From the initial headache to death, one week.

The cause was a virus, a close relative of ebola.

Lab workers became infected as a result of handling

The blood and tissue of african monkeys.

No one had seen anything like it.

It was a terrible kind of, uh... Disease

Because all organs are involved--

The liver, the brain, kidneys, all--

And it's a failure of every organ taken together

So they suffer extremely.

It must have been the same in the middle ages

Where you don't know what happens and people die

And knowing that they can get the disease from touching.

Narrator: in 1989, ebola made its way to the U.S.

Residents of this Washington, d.c., suburb had no idea

That one of the world's deadliest viruses had emerged

In their midst.

In a primate quarantine unit in Reston, Virginia

Monkeys in one of the holding rooms suddenly began to die.

Secretly, a military team entered the quarantine unit

And killed all 60 monkeys in the infected room.

The crisis heightened

As monkeys began to die in a different room.

It appeared that the virus was moving

Through the ventilating system.

In response, the military killed all 400 monkeys

Ending the outbreak.

This new strain of ebola had shown the potential

To spread through the air.

Had it been lethal in humans, it could have been catastrophic.

Soon after the international team arrived

The epidemic in kikwit exploded.

The plague fighters worried they would not be able to stop it.

Khan: I was actually very scared that this could get out of control

And there was no doubt

That when you looked at the distribution of cases

It was getting bigger and bigger every week.

And that week, actually

There were 70-odd deaths in the community.

People were dying in the streets.

They were literally... everywhere you walked

They were talking about people dying of ebola.

We were working as hard as we could

So that week I was extremely scared

That this thing may be getting out of control.

I coined the term "Chain of death"

And it was very characteristic

Of what you would see happening in a family.

And there were a number of such chains in the community

Where you would see one person become sick

And then you would see their spouse

Or primary care giver become sick.

Then four to five days later

Their primary care giver would become sick

And then you would just see this chain of death

And you could just track it through the family

Until it eventually terminated.

The one who died on the 20th was imazda?

Is imazda, yes.

And then the granddaughter died next.

Mm-hmm.

So today's the first.

So that's... So she's...

Narrator: to break the chain of death

Ali Khan must track down all the cases

And separate them from their families.

This often meant interfering

With the way people care for the sick and honor their dead.

So how would she hear

About these people being sick?

Just... If somebody would come in

From The Village?

Khan: another factor in the outbreak is attending funerals

And we do know that during preparation of a body

There's a lot of physical handling of the corpse

And during the funeral itself

A large number of people may touch that body.

And cultural things are difficult to change, obviously

Because they're ingrained in the way people act

But what we had to do was simply say

That if somebody dies of this disease

They immediately get put into a body bag

Sprayed down with lysol, popped in a coffin and buried deep.

Translator: o gods, we ask you to be with us in this hard time.

This hospital has been our refuge

And now the devil has taken it.

Please deliver us.

Narrator: the red cross team has the most thankless job of the epidemic.

Members are shunned by their neighbors

And regarded as pariahs in the villages.

Their visit signals only tragedy.

Narrator: if the ebola virus were looking for somewhere to spread

It could find no better place than kikwit.

Kikwit is called a city

But it is more like a large rural village of some 400,000

With no electricity and no running water.

Public health and sanitation are limited

And the illiteracy rate is almost 50%.

The local diet includes insects, monkeys and rats--

All suspected carriers of the virus.

Under these conditions

The international team must somehow get the word out:

Avoid contact with the sick or risk death.

They organized a street-level education campaign.

Banners are put up.

"The disease that makes your blood flow.

"This disease has no vaccine and no cure.

You must protect yourself."

It was very difficult to educate the public

Because there was no mass media.

There's no tv, there was no radio, there was no newspapers.

So everything had to depend on using alternative means

To educate the community.

Translator: this fever, this disease is harsh

And it's already killed many people

And I'm here to tell you

That hiding patients won't help anybody.

: well, what about the guy you buried over there?

Now that it's raining

Won't the water spread the disease from the corpse

Through the neighborhood?

: the red cross assured us

That he was buried safely.

He died in the outhouse and fell into the hole.

It was very deep, so they buried him right there.

You shouldn't be scared.

The red cross disinfected his grave and the surroundings.

His remains can't come out and his germs can't get you.

Narrator: medical students are sent out into the community

To identify new cases

Before entire neighborhoods become infected.

There's only one way to do this in kikwit: door to door.

: it looks like no one's home.

: they're here.

They just left when they saw us coming.

We're here to get some information.

: what's all this?

I don't understand.

Why are you coming to disturb people?

: we're students from the university of bandundu.

Man : we're doing research.

Is anyone here sick with ebola?

This is not right; I'm innocent.

Man: I worked with the medical students here in town

And the stories that I'm hearing--

And it seems very natural to me-- of the stigmatization

Including a story of someone being killed

Because he was from kikwit and was thought to have had contact.

So it's natural to me that if, you know, you say to someone

"Tell us if you have ebola

"And we'll take you away from your family

"And put you in the hospital where you'll likely die

And no one will want to visit you..."

So certainly if people don't want to tell you

Because of the stigma.

Narrator: but hospitalizing the sick

Is the only way to stop the disease.

In the ebola ward, Dr. Mupapa's team

Provides whatever human comfort they can

Knowing few, if any, of their patients will survive.

Each day as they leave

The medical staff is sprayed with stinging bleach

Which kills the virus.

Their protective clothing is burned

To ensure that it won't be reused.

But they can't so easily rid themselves

Of the images of the ward.

Mupapa: je suis un jeune Marie avec un enfant...

Translator: I'm a newlywed.

We have a child.

My wife was really worried about me coming here

And she was pretty scared...

Especially when we found out

That the disease can be transmitted

From a man to a woman through sperm.

I write her as often as I can

To tell her that everything's okay so far

And that we are taking safety measures

And that there's nothing to worry about.

Quand je lis ses lettres, en tout cas...

Translator: when I read his letters, I feel better

But even so, my heart is heavy.

I will only be happy the moment he returns home.

Tout le temps, le matin je prie, et le soir aussi...

Translator: I pray every morning and every night.

I'm really convinced that I'll return to Kinshasa alive.

That's truly my most ardent wish.

Ca, c'est papa devant.

Translator: look here, it's a picture of daddy.

Tous les jours qu'il touche le malade...

Translator: of course I'm afraid.

He's touching sick and dying people every day.

I'm terrified he's going to catch it.

This is a disease that is merciless.

I pray to god that he doesn't get sick.

I'm convinced that he won't get sick.

I'm sure of that now.

Narrator: yet people are still getting sick and still dying

Though fewer this week than last.

The epidemic rages, but a corner has been turned.

As night falls, the hit movie in kikwit is a video called ebola.

Made by a local entrepreneur

It stars the zairian doctors who have become local heroes.

Although the video is projected from a broken-down vcr

There isn't an empty seat in the house.

Equally unable to escape the epidemic even for a few hours

The medical team spends the evening

Swapping the latest stories.

Khan: but four days before he got sick

There was a young woman admitted for surgery

Who was pregnant

And when they opened her up

She had a hemorrhagic uterus.

Not only was he there

But she died in the o.r....

Narrator: as the scientists gain confidence

In their management of the crisis

Their research mission takes on a higher priority.

One of the researchers is Dr. Robert swanepoel

A south african virologist.

He is driven by the idea of finding the source of the virus.

Swanepoel: when something like this happens

You're just drawn to it as to a magnet.

I must go and find out where the devil this thing came from

And we really don't know.

Narrator: but most scientists believe

That ebola's natural home is the rain forest.

So this outbreak provides a critical opportunity

To search for it in its natural setting.

Peters: with rare diseases like ebola

Diseases that have not been properly studied

Every epidemic has to be seen in two ways.

It's an emergency to control the epidemic and save human lives

But at the same time

It's a responsibility to collect research data

That will inform you about future epidemics.

Narrator: between outbreaks, ebola lives

Within one of the many thousands of insect or animal species

That inhabit the rain forest.

But scientists have never succeeded

In identifying which one.

Swanepoel: it's a medical curiosity in these places.

I mean, where does it hole up

And how does it pop up here again in zaire after 20 years?

And I think that's what keeps a lot of us motivated

And interested in this virus.

I'm not sure what makes a good virologist.

Certain americans have sort of described

The type of person I am as an old-fashioned

Swamp-stomping epidemiologist, if you like.

Narrator: bats have been found in the vicinity of previous outbreaks.

But no one has ever found a bat

With a trace of ebola virus in its blood.

This time, Robert swanepoel hopes to make a breakthrough.

Only when the natural host is identified

Will it be possible to predict

Where the virus might strike next.

In each new blood sample is the possibility of an answer.

But what happens when the virus makes its move

From its animal host to a human being?

What is its lethal strategy?

Blood samples at different stages of the disease

Are collected by Dr. Pierre rollin.

Rollin: we know nothing on ebola, because during the '76 outbreak

Only a few blood sample were taken

So our hope in this outbreak is to get enough sample

From patient at different period of the disease.

An outbreak every 20 years

Is not like working with a serial killer

That have the same pattern all the time.

The priority is to try to stop the outbreak first

And then collect as much specimen that you can

So you can learn something.

Narrator: working in conditions

Far below standard laboratory safety levels

Rollin risks his life

Handling samples which contain enough ebola to kill thousands.

Kikwit is still under siege.

The zairians have been fighting this epidemic for ten weeks now.

More than 200 people have died.

The burials go on, but fewer than before.

The number of new cases continues to drop.

Every victim has been traced...

The chain of transmission well documented.

The end is in sight.

Back at the command center

The epidemiologists analyze the accumulating data.

Their efforts pay off with a dramatic breakthrough.

They identify "patient zero"

The individual they believe contracted the disease--

Not from another human being

But from a creature in the rain forest.

All the cases have been charted on a timeline

Tracing a path of destruction

Back to this very first known victim.

He died

Four months before the first case appeared at the hospital.

His name was gaspard menga.

Gaspard menga was a charcoal worker living in kikwit.

He is survived by his brother, Pierre

And his father, innocent.

They treasure a picture of gaspard's funeral

Which is now the extraordinary portrait

Of the start of an outbreak.

Ici judo.

Translator: judo, gaspard's son, is now dead.

Michael, gaspard's nephew...

Dead.

Decede...

Translator: deceased...

Deceased...

Translator: I don't know the origins of this disease.

Only god knows.

I'm not a scientist-- I'm a person.

I, too, hope to learn its origin.

Narrator: somewhere in this vast forest lives an organism

Which harbors the ebola virus.

Now the international team can narrow down their search

To the area surrounding gaspard menga's home and work.

Man: what we have, probably

Is a disease that occurs in nature

And very accidentally transfers to a human being.

Now, what we've done

Is to try and follow the so-called index case--

The first person who was infected

And who essentially was the beginning

Of this terrible epidemic.

Narrator: they trace menga's steps back to his last working place.

Reiter: this is a charcoal pit.

It takes three months

To do the entire process at one charcoal site

For which the man earns 15,000 zaires

Which is about three dollars--

Three months' hard work.

The gentleman who was the index case here

Had nearly completed this pit.

Rather sadly, he left over here his hoe in the tree

And a little bundle of cloth

And of course, nobody will touch that now.

Narrator: searching the area around menga's charcoal pit

Paul reiter and his colleague russ Coleman use a goat as bait

Hoping to determine whether an insect might be ebola's carrier.

Reiter: this disease is

A great enigma.

It has appeared only a few times in history.

In every case, the tremendous contagious nature of the disease

Has captured people's imagination.

Man: when this whole expedition began

Safety issues were discussed at length.

Certain behaviors could put us at risk.

We're collecting insects, and it's a remote possibility.

We're trying to avoid any bites or anything.

We wear insect repellent.

We've got our clothes treated with permetheryne

To keep them off.

So we're trying to minimize any of that risk.

Reiter: this is a challenge of a kind

That is very hard to describe.

Of course, there's human tragedy involved.

And we would like to think that the work that we do

Will help alleviate that kind of tragedy in the future.

It's natural history in its most vibrant form.

We're looking at all the creatures of the forest

And trying to understand

How they interact in this one particular way.

Narrator: other teams set out to trap rodents and small mammals

In the hope that one of their captured specimens

Will prove to be ebola's natural host.

Breakfast is served.

Narrator: they turn their field camp into a laboratory

As they prepare to measure and dissect their samples.

Male...

Two five eight.

Narrator: villagers look on with amusement

As the team cautiously handles

Animals local people eat for lunch.

Man: many people have looked at specimens in prior outbreaks

And no one has found anything yet

So I suppose from that point of view

It means that our chances of success are slim

But on the other hand

If no one ever looks, no one's ever going to find

So, um, we keep our fingers crossed

And we think that we're the ones that are going to find it.

Woman : there's a dead body in that house.

: I asked you yesterday if anyone was sick.

You said no.

Narrator: back in town, a crowd gathers.

The medical students have found a new victim.

: to them, ebola means bleeding.

If they aren't bleeding, they're not sick.

Now we find a dead body.

Narrator: the education campaign has turned out to be

A double-edged sword.

No longer mourned in traditional ceremonies

Some victims are abandoned by their families

Who fear any contact may prove fatal.

Allons.

Narrator: the medical students must make sure

That no one touches the body, which is teeming with ebola.

Woman : close the door!

Woman 2: tie it shut!

Narrator: aware of the risks, but not equipped to handle them

They are forced to improvise.

Woman : wait, wait!

Man : don't take them off like that.

I know.

Woman: put them over there in the hole.

No, we should burn them.

Man: just take them and throw them over there.

Yes, I know it's dangerous.

Man: throw it in the hole.

It's deep enough.

Woman: it's dangerous for the kids.

Oh, no, no-- it's deep enough.

Woman: can't we burn them?

Narrator: their function now understood

The red cross teams are greeted with relief.

Elaborate funeral rites have given way completely

To chillingly efficient disposal.

Although ebola is a ruthless killer

It is not totally without mercy.

The medical team now finds

That one in five patients are still alive.

They survived ebola.

These convalescents no longer show symptoms of the illness.

But they are still confined to the hospital

Because the virus remains in their blood

And can be transmitted through bodily fluids.

No one knows how these patients developed

The strong immune response-- the antibodies that saved them.

Comme il n'existe pas un medicament specifique...

Translator: since there is no cure for the virus

I know that god must have cured me.

God cured me.

Narrator: suddenly a frightening new case arises.

Mupapa: hier on nous a signale un nouveau cas.

Translator: yesterday we admitted

A new case, one of our nurses.

She's here in the emergency ward now

And the clinical diagnosis is ebola.

To see a nurse with whom you've worked every day

Sick with this disease, is terrible

And I really don't want to see her die.

Narrator: Nicole organya worked alongside the doctors

Always in full protective gear.

Somehow she became infected.

The doctors suddenly feel vulnerable.

The zairian physicians devise a plan

One that is experimental.

They know that the blood of survivors

Has antibodies against the virus.

They reason that if they transfuse Nicole with that blood

Perhaps those antibodies will save her.

They take Nicole's blood to type it.

Before deciding whether to proceed with their plan

They must find a convalescent with the same blood type.

A few last cases show up in the isolation ward.

The battle for Nicole's life may be critical for them.

As they go about their rounds

The zairian doctors know that with each passing hour

Nicole's chances for survival decline.

Even as they help other patients

The doctors become increasingly convinced

That they must execute their plan to save Nicole

And perhaps these final few patients as well.

The foreign members of the team are against the treatment.

There's basic risks

In giving an individual blood products from someone else.

There's a lot of infectious risk

There's, um... H.i.v. Is very prevalent

There's hepatitis b, hepatitis c.

Certainly in that setting

One of the greatest concerns would be

If the person you're treating doesn't have ebola--

If they have malaria or typhoid or something else--

And the person that you're getting the transfusion from

Still has ebola virus circulating in their blood

And is infectious, that would be...

The worst thing you could do

Is to give someone who didn't have ebola, ebola.

Narrator: the zairians test Nicole's blood

And find a convalescent with matching type.

Now they must make a decision.

Knowing that the foreign doctors are opposed

They meet privately.

: what if we transfuse convalescent plasma

To someone who doesn't have ebola?

What if our diagnosis is wrong?

It's clearly a clinical case.

It's obvious she has ebola.

We shouldn't doubt our diagnosis.

We've seen

So many cases now.

: we should at least wait until tomorrow.

In the meantime

Let's present and defend our position

In front of the scientific community.

What do you think?

In America, they don't transfuse patients

With convalescent blood.

We answer to ourselves.

I think we have to try this experiment

Maybe not on every one of these last few cases

But at least on our nurse.

Personally, I think

We could have transfused her this morning.

The diagnosis is clearly ebola

So I don't see why we should wait

Another 24 hours.

Okay, I think we all agree

That we do the transfusion.

And that we should do it as soon as possible.

Narrator: their decision made, the doctors approach a convalescent patient

Whose blood type matches Nicole's.

He agrees to cooperate.

Without involving the foreign doctors

They collect his blood and get ready to transfuse.

They have the resources only to do a quick aids test.

Nicole runs the risk of contracting any other disease

That may be in the donor's blood.

The cure may kill her.

Nicole is a subject in a life-or-death experiment.

Similar procedures with animals have failed in the past.

The doctors ask her to sign her consent before they proceed.

Narrator: the transfusion is interrupted

By a doctor from the belgian institute of tropical medicine.

The zairian doctors press on.

That night, Dr. Massamba, head of the zairian team

Defends the transfusion

At a hastily convened international meeting.

Translator: we felt compelled to try something new.

There is no treatment.

Tell us if there's something else we can do

And we'll do it

But we all know there is nothing.

That's why we did the transfusion.

And we asked our nurse

If she wanted us to do the procedure

And she consented in writing.

As for transfusing whole blood

We simply don't have the means here

To sterilize human plasma.

We felt compelled to try something.

Now we'll just wait and see what happens.

Narrator: everyone waits to see whether Nicole will pull through.

The tension is palpable.

Four days after the transfusion, there seems to be improvement.

A part que ca, je mange, je sors...

Translator: I'm eating now.

I go out, I wash myself

And I can get up without any help.

Mupapa : our nurse is doing better.

I'm really relieved.

I think that after Nicole, other people who get sick

May want us to try this same treatment

And, personally, I think it will work.

Narrator: a week later, Nicole is weak, but almost fully recovered.

Encouraged by their success

The zairian doctors transfuse eight more patients.

Seven survive.

The western doctors remain unconvinced.

Peters: it would not be my choice

To have given these blood transfusions.

On the other hand, with the pressure to do something

I can absolutely understand why these experiments were done.

I think what's unfortunate from my point of view is

That we'll never know whether this worked or not.

Kilmarx: there is other possible explanations

That late in the epidemic, the virus may be less virulent

After several passages through human hosts.

There is the possibility that late in the epidemic

People were having less exposure;

That there was some awareness

So people are being more careful

So they were getting smaller viral loads

When they were getting infected.

And so the ideal thing would have been

To have one group get the transfusions

And have one group not get them or get a placebo transfusion.

Unfortunately it's not something we can study in humans.

You certainly aren't going to give someone ebola

Just to do a trial like that

And we have to wait for an epidemic situation to do that.

Narrator: the transfused patients are the last in the ward.

No more cases appear.

The epidemic is over.

316 people had become infected with ebola

And 244 of them had died.

The international team is getting ready to leave.

The samples they collected will go to various labs for analysis.

They may hold the clues

That will help solve the ebola mystery.

Man: c'est une periode tres difficile...

Translator: it's a very, very difficult and critical period.

We're in a transition.

Everyone came to help.

That's wonderful.

They helped us a lot.

And for that, we are very grateful

To the international community

But now that the epidemic is over

We have to try to manage the crisis that caused this

And everyone is leaving.

All that is going back?

Yes.

That, too?

That, too, yeah.

Don't mix up with what is arriving.

: it's too bad you're leaving so soon.

: it's been 18 days.

I've stayed longer than anyone else.

Narrator: here in kikwit

A hastily assembled team of zairian and foreign scientists

Made medical history.

In the battle against one of the world's deadliest viruses

They prevailed, at least for now.

Close: after the scientists have come and gone

After the media has come and gone

Kikwit is back to what it was before.

When you have communities living in abject poverty

Exposed to all the diseases

The diseases are going to recur and they'll keep on recurring

And we have to turn our attention to that.

At this point, I'd put my money on the bugs.

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