this is Mel andu a small village tucked into the forest of Southeastern Guinea it is home to a few dozen families it has no electricity and no running water here in December of 2013 a one-year-old boy named Emil is thought to be the first victim of the Ebola outbreak by the end of March 11 people will have died in the village the boy's grandmother is linked to two people from the nearby Village of dawa who get the disease a relative a Mel ando's Midwife takes Abola to yet another Village dondu pombo it takes about 30 minutes to drive on the dirt road from Mel andu to the largest town nearby gadu the Midwife is taken to a hospital there in gadu a health worker also becomes ill and is taken to menta soon after a doctor dies there the doctor is buried in kogu within weeks more than 60 people will have died across the region the outbreak starts at the intersection of three of the poorest countries in the world the area is home to the kissy ethnic group there are few official border crossings from gadu into the neighboring country of Liberia but extended families cross easily by foot and Dugout canoe in this part of the world the few existing clinics and hospitals often lack running water and hand soap the region had little familiarity with ebola since nearly all of the previous outbreaks were in central Africa making matters worse Ebola symptoms resemble endemic diseases in West Africa like malaria chalera and loss of Fever by February people connected to the first patient's family are thought to have died in conre and a Kaho Sierra Leon this indicates that the virus probably traveled far and crossed borders early in the outbreak but the first confirmed cases of Ebola in Guinea came only on March 21st Days Later an bullet case is confirmed in the capital conre a city of more than 1 and A2 million people still reports of new infections decline in late April a statistical Plateau that resembles the historical outbreaks that burned out after a few months some International health organizations begin to relax their operations meanwhile weak contact tracing and local suspicion toward foreigners and National authorities allows the disease to spread outside the clinics ultimately the virus resurfaces in Sierra Leon unconfirmed cases of people dying in the village of pondu with ebola likee symptoms start as early as March but the first confirmed case comes only in late May in July Eola is confirmed in Freetown the capital the patient is a woman living in a kissy neighborhood of the city at this point the outbreak is surging out of control [Music] [Music]