All language subtitles for NOVA.S23E04.Ebola-ThePlagueFighters.Eng

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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