people don't judge your friend do you
guys ever worry about Ebola do you think
that's real no the government says
nobody's in push me
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since February 2014 an outbreak of Ebola
spread across West Africa from Guinea to
Sierra Leone and now it's finally
reaching the coast of Liberia and its
capital Monrovia confirmed by health
officials the deadly virus has already
killed seven people in Monrovia
scientists speculate that a possible
cause of the Ebola outbreak might stem
from the prevalent consumption of bush
meat from animals like monkeys and fruit
bats the scientific concerns surrounding
the consumption of bush meat begin in
our genes because we share 99% of our
DNA with monkeys the chances of an
infectious and incurable disease like
Ebola crossing over from a monkey to a
human is exponentially higher than with
any other animal Ebola is is one of
those words that you can say it anywhere
in the world and it invokes fear dr.
Joseph fair is a renowned vie Rolla gist
who we met working out of a lab near
Liberia's capital city of Monrovia take
me through sort of the lifecycle of the
Ebola virus if someone catches it if a
person catches it so Ebola is is what we
know is a viral hemorrhagic syndrome and
so a syndrome is just like aids Ebola is
a aggressive hemorrhagic fever syndrome
Ebola in particular causes the walls of
the capillaries to slightly separate and
blood starts leaking
you'll get conjunctival injection which
is bleeding into the eye that petechial
hemorrhage and that leakage ultimately
leads to shock and death just like you
would have with sepsis
so you're bleeding out from the inside
basically you're bleeding out from the
inside your blood pressure is lowering
to an amount so you when your
capillaries are leaking the blood is no
longer being transferred through your
body effectively it is a very painful
and agonizing death that no one would
want to go through despite the fact that
I was now worried about bleeding from my
eyes we headed to a local lab where they
were quarantine and testing for Ebola
the lab is an abandoned eight testing
facility nobody was there save a few
scientists with hazmat suits working on
the outbreak
behind those doors was Ebola culture
which was being used to compare two
cases of reported Ebola throughout the
country to see if it matched up how
about these mess they wear these masks
so right in here is where the Ebola
testing is actually happening these are
the suits that they wear in here
and I respect what he says when he says
not to touch them because these have
already been used
somehow I feel like this sheet is not
protecting me from Ebola protective
equipment that we wear when you go
inside we were you would wear this okay
are you I was standing out here and I'm
scared I'm glad my jumps out here and
your jobs in there
dr. SARS in charge of all infectious
disease testing in Liberia he's kind of
a first line of defense against
mysterious disease coming out of Africa
but like many Liberians dr. SAR was
skeptical about the presence of ebola
the truth is that we haven't had any
except for one kiss
of course one case constitutes an
outbreak in the Ivory Coast it's
somewhere in the 70s I think and that is
all says them in Liberia no not anywhere
else except now culturally humans have
evolved with non-human primates all
throughout Africa and Asia and I think
something that we don't usually think of
in the West is how that they evolved
here they're kept as pets they're also
used as a major food source
aka bush meat now a monkey is only one
part of what you would consider bush me
to bush me piece of bush meat would be
any animal coming
in the forest again most people don't
kind of recognize the need for bush meat
so when you imagine living in the deep
forests of Central Africa and or Asia
it's very difficult to raise domestic
animals yet human beings by their nature
need protein sources so bush meat in
many parts of the world still is a
necessary part of the diet there are
certain types of bush meat which we know
are more dangerous than others and those
particularly our birds non-human
primates including the chimpanzees
gorillas monkeys bats we're learning our
rate of great concern but despite the
danger how does one of Liberia's top
scientists feel about Bush me hope now I
will be very dishonest if I tell you
know I ate bush meat the antelopes they
kill them to dry them and emit comes to
market that's what I like more yeah I
don't like monkey meat it turns out the
very facility we were standing at has a
rich history of pandemic disease a
chimpanzee testing facility in the 80s
and 90s it was here that a doctor named
Preston Marx discovered HIV - in a local
pet monkey in a nearby village while HIV
one the most common strain of the
disease was discovered to have come from
chimpanzees as early as 1959 it was
unclear where HIV to the less common but
still deadly HIV originated from until
dr. Marx tested a mangabey while
working at the Institute in Liberia in
the late 80s and I took this picture and
my second trip of this young girl in in
in Lofa County is over Liberia and it's
worth a thousand words I mean look at it
I mean that that mangabey which is
the species the only species in in West
Africa that harbors the ancestor to HIV
- and look at it it's like a no it's
like a cat it's like a house cat it's
it's our friend in an eerie parallel -
dr. Marx discovering HIV - in a pet
monkey from Lofa today's Ebola outbreak
seems to have also originated from the
same place Lofa a dense jungle province
of Liberia that sits on the border of
Liberia Sierra
in Guinea is a trading center where
hunters from the jungle bring bush meat
two trucks that then head him to markets
in all three neighboring countries in an
attempt to stop the virus the
governments have banned the bushmeat
trade but Liberians have been ignoring
the threat and the ban in order to find
out why we met up with a local
journalist but turns out he harbored a
few Ebola conspiracy theories himself
here's your friend I'm interested in
this Ebola thing because the feeling in
Monrovia and across the whole country is
that Ebola never came to Liberia we are
what Assad is the main market and we are
going into the market where they sell
bush meat and other food stuff there
only the bush meat shop is in the back
the smell is super future so the
Liberian government bans bushmeat
totally right but you can still buy Bush
me you can stay Bob Bush me because they
are telling the Liberian Liberians not
to eat it and they're telling the market
eels not to sell it but people are still
selling it because they believe the
government is pulling their legs alright
so why is the government of Liberia
saying there's Ebola if there is an
Ebola
apparently it's a scam to get some money
from the international communities from
the donors it's Minister because the
government is group everybody knows that
the government was able to say that
there was 16 billion dollar investment
here they have nothing to show for it so
a lot of people don't believe official
government policy was to ban the sale of
bush meat however as we hit the market
we learned how effective that
prohibition was excuse me
[Applause]
there's hundreds of my dead deer parts
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monkeys are both a delicacy and pets in
fact they're so prevalent it's hard to
make the connection that these cute
monkeys could Harbor a super virus or
create a pandemic I'm in mind I'm not
where I'm a journalist we just saw this
guy ran
his friend wanted to eat it but he said
no I'm keeping it as a pet
this is spent yeah know about it hey you
want come I'm hungry nah
your girl a Bronco burger your calves
what I'll go anywhere and I'm gonna go
my city what is love what it all fight
with me Nagbe went to go get more bush
meat while I walked into where I could
go buy some monkey we came out to the
back here and this woman had like four
or five monkeys for sale so while the
Liberian government theoretically has
banned monkey meat you can still get it
because it's just a wheelbarrow full of
bush meat right here
you're putting the water is so ok we
soap then a flash game do you worry
about eating this sweet
please oh my god I'm getting
pegged with Ebola bunky right now I'm
getting fragged with Ebola bunky do you
guys ever worry about Ebola you think
that's real okay
Nagbe showed us what he had bought for
that night's dinner okay well I'll go
want some fresh meat
this is GME oh yeah you see that funny
feet until this Bushrod and ricotta
bush-rat
ceased of our delicates and my man if
you give somebody call me don't prepare
this and get him fish they were perfect
things it's a clock
yeah nag me invited us to his home to
watch how his wife prepares the bushmeat
for a meal just like any other food if
it's cooked there's not really a problem
it's through the preparation and where
you get that blood and body fluid
transfer from the rota to the humans and
we actually have found humans with the
monkey forms of the viruses and so those
are people that we obviously monitor
because those viruses might be the next
HIV pandemic that's that armadillo thing
they wrote it one of the dangers one of
the things that the experts won against
is that one of the main sources of
transmission is that if you're cutting
the Bushman you're handling the bush
nation we've got a cotton and then you
interact with it that's when disease
transmission could occur so nag news
wife was preparing a meal for us that's
exactly what happened she cut herself
while she was cutting the meat not an
academic fear something that can really
happen
can we meet this guy's the owner your
neighbor let me let me find out he's
dead okay thank you his name is Jack
Jack we on nickname for monkey in
Liberia we'll call it jackal so exactly
how long have you Adam and he's your pet
yeah they say we should not touch people
I mean you can this I know Emily you
cannot eat certain kind of meat it means
that Yaga you have put a whole lot of
people out of business easy and the
people who have insulted me in the
market we are there after this polimedia
still sell there so then what do you
think about the idea of eating bush meat
do you think it's safe yeah yeah
oh you either push me to eat monkey yeah
you only test one no this one and where
did he come from
oh this is coming from go far it's
coming from loofah
yeah loofah and isn't that where they
had the obama outbreak yeah that will
okay oh the rumor I'm sorry particularly
with non-human primates monkeys and
chimpanzees etc keeping them as pets and
you imagine like you have a dog well a
dog bite you if you keep it as a pet
so does the chair so does a monkey the
monkey John Jones
oh hi amen the monkey jump it jumps
although sometimes I won't know how God
already made these things the monkey
jump John John so haha
thank you currently the most popular
song in Liberia is called Ebola in town
by an artist named shadow the week we
were in Liberia we found out he was
playing a concert downtown so we went to
go meet him now the song is like three
weeks oh and it's everywhere and in
every town every village every county in
everybody form everybody with video
explaining everybody and everything is
taking it so it's like it's the biggest
song right now in our country and it's
the big thing
shadows song going viral is an indicator
that most Liberians aren't too concerned
with ebola even as it continues to
spread but in a place where humans and
monkeys are in such close proximity a
new virus could emerge that's even more
lethal some humans somewhere likely here
in Africa is going to eat a monkey with
a disease that's never been seen before
super Ebola a new strain of AIDS and
according to Joseph that virus could
kill a third of the planets population
it's not the disease we know it's the
one we don't when we think about the
worst case scenario it is always a
combination of what is the most
transmissible combined with what is the
most lethal nothing is localized anymore
international trade of transport of
people and animals and crops and
everything else that comes along with
that you know what used to happen in one
remote corner of Africa can easily
spread to Europe or the United States
the next global pandemic exists
somewhere the virus just has to jump
that gap the way HIV did decades ago and
Ebola did today and when it does the
planet will be singing a whole different
tune
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