FRONTLINE told the vivid, inside story of how the biggest Ebola outbreak on record began and why it wasn’t stopped before it was too late. (Aired 2015)
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FRONTLINE spent months on the ground in West Africa, tracing the Ebola outbreak’s path through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2014 and 2015 and uncovering the hidden story of what happened before the world started paying attention. The documentary shared firsthand accounts from survivors and victims’ family members — from the forest region of Guinea to the bustling Liberian capital of Monrovia — including the father of a one-year-old Guinean child who was believed to be the first person to die in the outbreak.
With access to key global and local decision-makers and health responders, “Outbreak†exposed tragic missteps in the response to what would become the deadliest Ebola outbreak that the world had ever experienced. The documentary drew on revelatory and candid admissions of failure from key government and public health officials, some of whom were speaking publicly for the first time. The investigation raised prescient questions about whether governments and global health organizations had the capacity to respond at the right scale the next time the world faced a major infectious epidemic.
Explore additional reporting associated with “Outbreak” on our website:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/outbreak/
“Outbreak†is a FRONTLINE production with Mongoose Pictures and Quicksilver Media in association with the BBC. The director and producer is Dan Edge. The producer is Sasha Joelle Achilli.
#Documentary #Ebola #Epidemic
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
Prologue – 00:00
Where the 2014-16 Ebola Outbreak Is Believed to Have Begun – 0:34
The Ebola Virus Crosses Borders in West Africa in 2014 – 09:42
Ebola “Spreads Unchecked†in Sierra Leone in 2014 – 20:20
An Unprecedented Ebola Epidemic: The Death Count Rises – 29:10
Ebola Spreads in Monrovia, Liberia in August 2014 – 32:03
An Ebola Hospital Struggles in 2014 – 39:22
The International – and Local Liberian – Responses to Ebola in 2014-15 – 44:56
Credits – 51:55
Why are they so stupid so they eat bats 😮 that is beyond me…
ghosts,curses,witchcraft,ordinary people convinced someone has great powers,how fuckin dumb are these people
We need to treat bats like we do mosquitos. If they are a reservoir for deadly diseases – they must die.
My heart breaks for these people such suffering 😢
wow such a failure of WHO, which failed to show leadership and provide education, and the politicians, who made decisions when they were ignorant of the medical issues. This will happen again. Education of the population, which should have occurred from day 1, appears never to have happened. Doctors Without Borders is amazing, and I wonder what would have happened if they did not step in.
Imagine if Trump had been the president at the time of this? It will go away when the weather gets warm.
I see patterns where people act like they did a few years ago "there's no ebola" Meanwhile in their case that government was full of idiots who hired incompetent medics, in our case people themselves were morons who also shouted "there's no covid" You've got information right in your hands and yet poor countries were still smarter than you.
This poor mother😢
South Africa has thee most superstitious people in the whole wide world..and the most easily assimilated
Imagine Trump being the president of the US at that time …..he surely would care less
The minute it touched down in the United States, it was "Houston We Have A Problem!!!!!"
Stupid religion. This should have been eradicated and outgrown centuries ago. Yeah, it was witchcraft and a booboo tree being mad! It was a curse! Jesus Christ, can we finally educate people out of this way of thinking? It's as primitive as Headhunters from the Amazon.
Appreciate what DWB stands for but don’t want a single penny of my tax dollars going to police/treat people who can’t even help themselves. Chasing caregivers away, holding these stupid funerals… not one civilian in this documentary demonstrated a new understanding of virology or disease or a desire to learn and that speaks volumes.
I hate it when they dont dub english over top of other languages, it makes it impossible to just listen to. I like to watch these while cooking etc but having to stare at the screen constantly is annoying af
I went to college for biochemistry bc I wanted to work with these viruses, especially Ebola. I was not able to keep up with my studies so I let me dream go. I wish I hadn’t. Thank God for the ones who did make it in their studies and became the people were watching right now.
I remember the memes. I was in 7th grade 😂
Imagine a parent seeing their child fade before them, it's awful what so many people had to endure, all while others in more priveleged countries wouldn't even share a split thought about it.
Stumbled across this video after a hard and depressing day at work. After watching this documentary, I feel lucky.
… and I thought I had a bad day. Think again!
19:29 Bro's recording on a DS ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
instead of starting a riot, they could have simply stepped the fuck back…
an entire continent filled with uneducated people who believe in ghosts and spirits. how can humans be so stupid.
That one woman who inspired by racism of white doctors ran to the border of Sierra Leone and just casually crossed the river… I hope she lives the rest of her life knowing that her actions caused the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. Based purely on her racial and superstitious fear. How she is a free person that did not face criminal charges for this act, it just boggles the mind.
Where is the generational knowledge at? At some point someone should have figured out "Huh, eating all this bush meat leads to lots of problems, maybe we should teach the kids from a young age not to bring home such things" Same a putting in the latrines upstream from where you draw water from, or near the well.
People that need scenic shots in areas where people aren't use to drones, let alone, be able to afford one. Feels weird when everyone in the shot is looking up at the camera. Literally, everyone it passed was looking if they didnt get up and leave its view. Disrespectful.
Seeing this post-COVID is so weird…
This feels like watching a scary movie… good documentary ðŸ‘
People can be carriers and never know it.
Is it possible the father and others were carriers and was missed?
Poverty and ignorance is the most dangerous 'Virus' ever.
This people always play with out…we have been bush for the long in caves with but..how now they have ebola…the did that
This is how the world will end,by a couple who has 10 kids,who need to gather food for themselve,eating bats instead of dinner theyr parents fixed.Send them Condoms before they ki*l us all.they can't afford to have a kid,let alone 9 to 10.Imagine having to search food as an 8 year old,lord have mercy…
Drop napalm and burn those villages! No one will even notice 100k fewer people in the world! fukin ofice rats with no back bone
you know after ebola and covid. people should learn to leave the bats alone.
I'm amazed to all the health workers. cause if it was me and they treat me like that when I'm just trying to save their lives, I'd just take a leave and save myself.
The video's explanation—that the outbreak originated from children hunting and consuming bats—seems far-fetched. Furthermore, the rapid decrease in cases and declaration of control, timed just after Western cases begin appearing, raises significant suspicion and feels like a conspiracy theory.
Marburg Virus Alert in Ethiopia: Ethiopia is battling a deadly Marburg virus outbreak in its southern region (as of 14 Nov 2025). Current reports indicate 7 deaths and hundreds of cases. After watching this video, I want to stress the need for immediate, coordinated action to control this outbreak now. We must not allow this to escalate like the previous Ebola crisis.
The Marburg virus is naturally hosted by the Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus), which is found across numerous countries, including Ethiopia. the bat's common name can be misleading given the history between these two countries (or is it???????).
Crucially, due to deeply held cultural and religious beliefs in Ethiopia, the consumption of animals like bats can never be the cause of this initial outbreak.
This is unbelievable. How can they care this little about their own people. these african governments are crazy evil. especially up north and west.
WHO are so useless when they said they had the experienced on dealing EBOLA before BUT they didn't do any drastic measures to stop it or even prevent it from spreading any further when there were only less than 50 people infected…like bro, WTF!? they shove the responsibilities to that countries authorities who doesn't even have any experience in dealing with the outbreak while the doctors without borders asked for helped because they knew that its gonna go out of control soon as they don't have enough manpower to stop it.
then when it went out of control and the ebola started to spread in other countries thats when i got triggered when WHO said that they don't have the funds and manpower to stop it anymore…like, NO SH*T SHERLOCK….
pretty much what I heard from WHO are excuses after excuses… "wE ArE NoT prEparEd" fck you!
It's not surprising when you learn that the avg IQ of these countries is below 70… They had a word used in the 1950's for this that started with a "R".