00:00Ebola is back in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
00:03A deadly virus, conflict zones, fragile hospitals, funding cuts.
00:08On paper, this should be a disaster.
00:11And yet African health workers have done something remarkable for nearly 50 years.
00:16They've repeatedly stopped Ebola outbreaks from spiraling into global catastrophes.
00:30We're going to do the trial with the different signs that are present,
00:35so that we can protect the health care personnel and the other people who are on the other side.
00:40Welcome to the flip side.
00:42Make no mistake, Ebola is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases,
00:47with fatality rates that can reach around 50% in some outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization.
00:54And the DRC has seen more Ebola outbreaks than any other country
00:58since the virus was first identified near the Ebola River in 1976,
01:03by, among others, Jean-Jacques Mouyembe-Tamphum.
01:06The risk is very large to, for example,
01:13the next pandemic is part of the RDC.
01:18There are a lot of changes like that,
01:20because our ecosystem is propitious to the development of different pathogens.
01:29But the problem, as I said, is the weakness in surveillance.
01:35Our system is very weak to detect an epidemic.
01:40But despite repeated outbreaks, Ebola has never spread globally on the scale of COVID-19.
01:46Part of that reason is experience.
01:49African scientists, doctors, and frontline workers have spent decades building systems
01:54to contain the virus, often under extremely difficult conditions.
02:16The new strain, known as Bunibugyo, has no vaccine.
02:21Ebola outbreaks often emerge in remote areas with weak infrastructure,
02:26limited healthcare access, and deep mistrust of the authorities.
02:30In Eastern Congo, ongoing armed conflict makes intervention even harder.
02:35But despite all this, Ebola containment in Africa has also become one of the continent's
02:40most important public health success stories.
02:42The 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, the deadliest on record,
02:48was eventually content through aggressive contact tracing, isolation measures, regional cooperation,
02:54and community mobilization, led largely by African health workers and institutions.
03:00Today, many of those lessons are being used again.
03:03Neighboring countries, including Uganda and Kenya, have already stepped up surveillance,
03:07border screening, and preparedness support for the DRC.
03:10These countries need to be self-reliant, need to be able to learn and have the capacity
03:17to do the surveillance, and there needs to be multilateral cooperation to make sure,
03:22because these viruses don't respect borders or policies or politics.
03:30Admittedly, the decline in development aid led by the United States has made the situation harder.
03:35But it also presents an opportunity for more sustainable disease fighting.
03:40I'm starting to see evidence of countries who have been affected by this cut
03:50to move beyond their initial reaction, which was, how do we make up for the shortfall?
03:55How do we get money from somewhere else?
03:57From that, they have revolved into, can we use this crisis to come out better?
04:03And in this instance, they're talking about sovereignty,
04:07which basically says, can we make decisions that are best for our country?
04:11Early detection remains one of the continent's biggest challenges.
04:15But when outbreaks hit, African response systems are now faster,
04:19more coordinated, and more experienced than they were decades ago.
04:23And that matters, because Ebola control depends heavily on rapid isolation, local trust,
04:29community outreach, and tracing human contact chains.
04:33All areas where African health teams have built deep expertise.
04:38We have reinforced the measures of health surveillance measures,
04:42the accessibilization community, and the capacity to take charge in the health structures.
04:48The medical teams are formed on the rapid detection of cases suspects,
04:53also the isolation and the use of equipment to protect.
05:12The Ebola threat in the Eastern Congo is serious, but so is Africa's experience in fighting it.
05:19And while the world often focuses on the outbreaks once they become emergencies,
05:23African scientists and frontline workers have been battling these viruses for decades,
05:29often with far fewer resources than those in richer countries.
05:33That doesn't mean the fight is won, but it does mean Africa isn't starting from zero.
05:38And that is the flip side.
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