none of us had ever seen a virus base to
health crisis like this we were all
being introduced into this landscape of
a major health crisis of international
proportions and concern this is what
this virus looks I’d seen the outbreak
firsthand already and I was interested
to go back and see how it was
progressing but I was really eager for
an opportunity which Geographic provided
to take a deeper look at what was going
on around a bola something that’s really
fascinating about Ebola virus is that
every time it spills over from sort of
the animal community the natural world
into people it happens in places like
this remote forest communities and
inherently that means that the people
who experienced the initial frontline of
the virus are people who have the least
access to education and the other
elements of the state we wanted to see
where all of this began and it began in
a very small community in the forest
region of southeastern Guinea the people
in melee and ooh were terrified they had
no idea what was killing all of these
people I can imagine the fear of a group
of people where all of a sudden people
are dying in droves in this village yeah
way out in the equatorial forest
following a couple of bush meat hunters
hunting from monkeys we went to follow
bush meat hunters because traditionally
men who are hunting in the woods have
typically been patient zero in a number
of about this we went out and we went a
couple of days hunting monkeys and stuff
like that and then eventually I think
started to get a sense that I didn’t
have any nefarious agenda or something
they said you know if you really want to
see how we do this we have to make the
clothes I said what are the clothes and
he said well we make this thing that
we’ve been making for centuries which is
an outfit made of the bark of trees
fitted into various pieces and then
paint and ultimately they crafted these
outfits that really resemble something
that looks like a leopard there’s a
photographer you’re asked to put
yourself in positions where the risk
levels are high to see burials to see
body collection to see people who are
infected with the virus so you have to
be in that proximity I went to the
Hastings Ebola treatment unit which is
just outside of Freetown this is a
really kind of horrific scene behind me
here an advanced Ebola patient who is
quite delusional sometimes the disease
is intense it causes delusions in the
mind and this guy has tried to escape
from one of the highly quarantine wards
here in this holding facility at
Hastings this is really the the graphic
elements of how bad Ebola can be some of
the attendants approached him and he was
carried back into the isolation unit and
I was told by the doctor in charge that
he died not long after the picture was
taken when he emerged I thought this is
a terrible situation
and I I don’t want to make this picture
but I have to make this picture
previously I think it was somewhat easy
to write off we have relatively small
outbreaks in very isolated areas and
they would sort of flare up and then
disappear
hopefully the level of devastation this
outbreak created will create some type
of shift in terms of the imperative to
figure this out
health crisis like this we were all
being introduced into this landscape of
a major health crisis of international
proportions and concern this is what
this virus looks I’d seen the outbreak
firsthand already and I was interested
to go back and see how it was
progressing but I was really eager for
an opportunity which Geographic provided
to take a deeper look at what was going
on around a bola something that’s really
fascinating about Ebola virus is that
every time it spills over from sort of
the animal community the natural world
into people it happens in places like
this remote forest communities and
inherently that means that the people
who experienced the initial frontline of
the virus are people who have the least
access to education and the other
elements of the state we wanted to see
where all of this began and it began in
a very small community in the forest
region of southeastern Guinea the people
in melee and ooh were terrified they had
no idea what was killing all of these
people I can imagine the fear of a group
of people where all of a sudden people
are dying in droves in this village yeah
way out in the equatorial forest
following a couple of bush meat hunters
hunting from monkeys we went to follow
bush meat hunters because traditionally
men who are hunting in the woods have
typically been patient zero in a number
of about this we went out and we went a
couple of days hunting monkeys and stuff
like that and then eventually I think
started to get a sense that I didn’t
have any nefarious agenda or something
they said you know if you really want to
see how we do this we have to make the
clothes I said what are the clothes and
he said well we make this thing that
we’ve been making for centuries which is
an outfit made of the bark of trees
fitted into various pieces and then
paint and ultimately they crafted these
outfits that really resemble something
that looks like a leopard there’s a
photographer you’re asked to put
yourself in positions where the risk
levels are high to see burials to see
body collection to see people who are
infected with the virus so you have to
be in that proximity I went to the
Hastings Ebola treatment unit which is
just outside of Freetown this is a
really kind of horrific scene behind me
here an advanced Ebola patient who is
quite delusional sometimes the disease
is intense it causes delusions in the
mind and this guy has tried to escape
from one of the highly quarantine wards
here in this holding facility at
Hastings this is really the the graphic
elements of how bad Ebola can be some of
the attendants approached him and he was
carried back into the isolation unit and
I was told by the doctor in charge that
he died not long after the picture was
taken when he emerged I thought this is
a terrible situation
and I I don’t want to make this picture
but I have to make this picture
previously I think it was somewhat easy
to write off we have relatively small
outbreaks in very isolated areas and
they would sort of flare up and then
disappear
hopefully the level of devastation this
outbreak created will create some type
of shift in terms of the imperative to
figure this out
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