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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: What is the current situation of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
79% kokee, ettei tule nähdyksi hakiessaan apua terveydenhuollosta. This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. Welcome to The Fifth Floor from the BBC World Service. With me, Farinak Amidi. The BBC World Service broadcasts in 45 languages around the world.
Our job here at The Fifth Floor is to bring you the best of those stories in English and also to get you closer to the extraordinary work our journalists do. This week, the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak continues.
Early on Sunday... I declared a public emergency of international concern over an epidemic of Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I'm afraid, like any human being, because we have children at school and they still come into contact with a lot of people. Once they come home, they can infect the whole family.
Ebola is a frightening and deadly disease, killing on average half of those infected and spreading rapidly without containment measures. So how do BBC journalists report from the centre of an epidemic? With me is BBC West Africa journalist Emery Makumeno, who has been reporting from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Ebola outbreak.
Moussa Sanghari, country director for Sierra Leone for BBC Media Action, who led public information campaigns in the country back in the 2014 epidemic. Camila Mota, journalist with BBC News Brazil, who reported the country's Zika virus outbreak. in 2015 and 2016, and Matias Zibel, producer at BBC Mundo, who reported on the recent hantavirus outbreak in Argentina. Wow, what a team.
Welcome to The Fifth Floor. Great to have you all experts here. So reporting on hantavirus an epidemic can quickly gather apocalyptic overtones. We might hear words like ground zero, patient zero, and we usually have conspiracy theories spreading not only locally, but even globally. So Mary, I want to hear from you because you are on the ground reporting this epidemic right now.
What are you hearing and what are you seeing?
Well, here in the DRC, let's say that the Ituri province in the eastern part of the country is the current epicenter of this new, also rare, Budubingyo Ebola virus. But you also have North Kivu and also South Kivu. These are neighboring provinces still in eastern DRC. One of the other things which is coming very often is, of course, fortunately, the conspiracy theory.
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Chapter 3: How do journalists report from the epicenter of an epidemic?
I'm a in terms of the response in Sierra Leone at the time, because one thing that we noticed was the fact that increased knowledge and awareness about the virus does not necessarily translate to action.
So you might meet people who understand the symptoms of the virus and all the sciences behind it, but at the end of the day, they are not taking action in terms of protecting themselves, their loved ones,
families and communities so we came up with mr plan plan from the point of view that how could we inspire behavior change and action so this short drama series is more or less like creating conversations at individual and community level household level for people to have a plan
In a situation where if there is an outbreak of Ebola, either in your community or your household, what are some of the practical steps you are expected to take? So you don't have to wait until the virus comes. You need to have conversation at the household level. To say, for example, if my son falls ill,
I mean, there might be doubt whether this person has been infected with Ebola, whether this person is ill with malaria, because the symptoms are similar. And there is always this urge and tendency for you to touch a sick person, for you to care for the person. So you are faced with this dilemma. So we create this drama for people to start asking these difficult questions.
How do we isolate, you know, sick people? You know, how do we call for help? So once you start having these conversations and you have a plan when such situations happen, because we have to consider the fact that we are also operating in a context and an environment where the healthcare system is very, very overstretched. It's very, very limited.
It's not a situation where, for example, somebody falls ill, you can just call an ambulance. So what are some of the localized solutions that you can put together into practice. And I think Mr. Aplanplan helped to kind of engender some of those conversations and inspire action from community people.
And once you start doing some of those things, then you can help to break the transmission and also that could also inspire action from other people.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do communities face in accepting health information during outbreaks?
And it's only starting now, but the resistance is still there. I also wanted to add one more element that as the World Cup is starting, of course, there will be a big concern over here. Response is in need of over $500 million and not much has been disposed according to the response teams. And now the word is focusing on the football, the biggest event.
So the fear here is that commitment or pledges might be forgotten and the people as well might be in shortage of the necessary funding in order to contain football. This outbreak, though the government seems to be positive that they've had to deal with Ebola for this is the 17th time for the DRC, but money is needed and more international mobilization is needed for them to contain it.
When we're talking about reporting, do you also get a chance to talk about underlying issues, giving more analysis, for instance, about the relationship between poverty, war, disease, all of these things? Is there a capacity in your audiences for absorbing that kind of reporting as well, Matthias?
I think you have different steps. I mean, in the first situation, people are scared that they can get whatever they are afraid of. I remember with COVID and now with Hantavirus. So for me, this first moment is the face of, can I get it? Or how can I avoid getting it?
So it's really difficult in this first moment to try to explain, you know, links between touristic industry, people flying or things like that. After this first moment of... are we having another COVID pandemic? I think you have more opportunities to explain, okay, these are linked with this. Don't be afraid if you are here because it's happening here.
For example, hantavirus is a virus that is not, has not a lethality level like COVID or Ebola. So it's like, people is like, is hantavirus as lethal as COVID? No, it's not. So for me, these are, It's different in the first phase of the concern. And after a week, maybe you have this chance to explain a little bit more.
And Musa, is it something that you and BBC Media Action also get to talk about?
Yes, of course, because you can't just isolate Ebola from the other diseases, which are endemic in most parts. in Africa, in those communities. And for us, yes, Ebola is a public health emergency, and there is a need for us to provide life-saving information. But during the course of our programming, we also had to take a hard look in terms of the whole healthcare system.
And I think that brings us to the question of accountability as well. Because I don't know if the government has a responsibility for them to provide some of those basic services. And if you don't ask those questions, you know, and people feel that we are moving from one epidemic to the other. You know, today's Ebola, probably two or three years, another outbreak or cause.
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