User:Mcasa074/Spillover- Zika, Ebola & Beyond

The documentary spillover-Zika, Ebola & Beyond was released by PBS in 2016 across the United States to illustrate the catastrophic outcomes that can arise from zoonotic viruses. The film was directed, produces and written by James Barrat.

== Synopsis ==

Zika
Scientists try to catch and control diseases before they spillover and spread, not just the pathogen itself but controlling the human behaviors that enable them to thrive. Zika was first identified in 1947 in Uganda, then it appeared in a pacific island of Yap, in 2013 it moved to French Polynesia. In the last century the numbers of Zika spread has quadrupled. It is able to transmit from animal to human (spread via mosquitos) and from person to person contact through sexual contact or blood transfusion. A Zika outbreak took place in Brazil in 2015. The clinics were flooded with concerned patients, they examined their blood to rule out dengue, Chikungunya, and other regional viruses. Doctors were relieved Zika was a mild disease, it was first discovered in Africa so it didn’t seem dangerous since most of the cases were asymptomatic. At first it wasn’t a concern, it started becoming a concern with the increasing numbers of Microcephaly cases. The Zika virus Invades the developing fetal brain and destroys brain tissue in the fetus. Brazil’s ministry of health partners with the CDC and conducted a study in 600 infants & mothers to see if Zika infections were responsible for Microcephaly in infants. For the case control study they had cases of babies with Microcephaly and cases of babies that were born without Microcephaly in and around the same geographic area and around the same time. The protocol was to interview the mothers, examine the babies, measure the infants' head circumferences, and test both mother and infants for Zika virus. By 2016 the evidence was strong, suggesting that prenatal Zika virus infection was responsible for Microcephaly in babies.

Ebola
“In the last 40 years it struck dozens of times but never like this.”

Viruses reproduce by getting its genetic material into the cells of organisms and making copies. Common symptoms include vomit, diarrhea, fever, dehydration, headache, muscle pain, among others. Spreads person to person through close physical contact with body fluids like vomit or diarrhea. Even after a person dies, the virus remains in the host so those who were taking care of the bodies were at great risk to contract the disease. The virus weakens the liver (responsible for clearing toxins from the blood and helps with clotting). Dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea contribute to falling blood pressure, internal bleeding makes it worse. Most people start to develop some inability to maintain their blood circulation, so their blood pressure goes down, as a result their organs stop to function and they go into systematic organ failure and die. Ebola kills 90% of people it invades. Ebola was first discovered 1976; the first case was a nun in Zaire. The scientists investigating it flew to Yambuku (the remote African village where the nun was infected). They controlled the virus through quarantine. They tracked the virus back to a teacher who ate a wild antelope (exposed to the virus carried by animals- zoonotic disease more than 70% of emerging infections originally come from animals e.g. HIV/AIDS,  Influenza) they named the virus after a nearby river called Ebola because they didn't want to stigmatize the village by calling the virus Yambuku. Populations that had Ebola outbreaks were isolated so in the early days they were in a way self contained. Ebola would get into a village and infect a lot of people, kill 80-90% of them, but then because the village was naturally isolated infection would die out. However, West African towns are not as isolated, it's more populated and there's advanced road systems which allowed people to travel, giving diseases more opportunity to spread. In 2014, the outbreak happened on the boarder of 3 of the poorest west African nations: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia. 5 species make up the genus ebolavirus, the one that caused the 2014 outbreak is the most deadly, Zaire Ebolavirus. Since they weren’t diagnosing right away, they didn’t expect or recognize that it was Ebola at first. Control measures weren’t put in place until there were more cases than the hospitals could contain. Ebola was able to do a lot of damage because the health system was weak and not prepared. Later, when it hit Lagos Contact tracers visited 19,000 homes and they were able to stop the outbreak by monitoring 894 people and isolating them.

Zika

 * 18 year old Emmambrielle de Siluz complained of fevers, joint pains, and a rash.

“I had pain in my joints, knees, and in my legs and arms. Some spots, it itches a lot and you can’t sleep.”


 * 2 month old Samuel de Silva suffers from microcephaly. During pregnancy a baby’s head grows as their brain grows but something prevented Samuels brain from developing properly. In an x-ray of a healthy newborn, brain tissue fills the cranium, Samuel’s scan shows most of the cavity contains calcium deposits and empty space. His sight and hearing were altered. This impairments are irreversible for a lifetime.

Ebola

 * First case in 1976, nun who died in Dominican Republic of Congo.  They sent her blood sample to microbiologist, Peter Piot.
 * Ebola survivor, who has lingering problems: vision & hearing impairment and chest & muscle pain. He contracted Ebola while taking care of his mother who had Ebola. He became ill over the course of 2 days it started as back pain and headaches. He didn’t want to infect others by taking a bus or taxi so he walked to the hospital which was 3 miles away. He reached the hospital and it was chaotic, the beds were filled with dying children and adults. He saw his cousin, nephew and brother die.
 * 2 year old boy in Guinea (patient zero), died December 28, 2013 and his sister died 8 days later, followed by his mother and a family friend, the grandmother(at the hospital she infected several people- including a nurse), the nurse carried the disease to another hospital and 15 more people died. How did he catch it? Bats have been the animal carriers to Ebola virus and patient zero handled or ate a bat.
 * Patrick sawyer, a diplomat who traveled to Lagos (which was very concerning because it was a very populous city) with the virus and infected many people along the way
 * His doctor, Adaora Igonoh, suspected he had Ebola, upon the diagnosis, sawyer was angry and wanted to leave but despite being pressured by government officials she refused to let him go
 * She sent his blood to Christian Happie (biologist) and he confirmed he had Ebola

Zika

 * Ernesto marques (University of Pittsburg) tested different hypothesis and it turned out to be Zika
 * Tom Frieden (Centers of Disease, control & prevention) “most of the people that got the diseases only got the mild disease.”
 * Regina Coeli Ferreiral Ramos (Oswaldo Cruz University hospital) “we had never seen so many cases of babies with microcephaly, in 1 week we saw 13 babies and about 12 in the year is the median.”
 * Celina Maria Turchi Martelli (Oswaldo Cruz foundation) they had triangular faces and seemed to have no forehead and they had a helmet in the back with the occipital, backbone had a very strange shape.
 * Maria Angela Wanderley Rocha (Oswaldo Cruz University hospital) in regards to Samuel's case, “scans show very impaired brain”.
 * Alexia Harris (CDC) helped conduct the case study
 * Jonna Mazat (one health institute, UC Davis) “we push further and further into areas where humans have not traditionally lived and we are being exposed to animals and their pathogens that live in those areas.”
 * Jonathan Epstein (EcoHealth Alliance) “we are constantly building farms next to forests and other natural settings; we are forcing interactions between livestock and wildlife, that results in disease transmission”

Ebola

 * Jonathan Epstein (EcoHealth Alliance) “populations that had Ebola outbreaks were isolated so in the early days they were in a way self contained.  Ebola would get into a village and infect a lot of people (kill 80-90%) of them, but then because the village was naturally isolated infection would die out.”
 * Tom Frieden (CDC) “The disease spread for months without being recognized”
 * Peter Piot (London school of hygiene and tropical medicine) First person to evaluate the virus, “it had an unusual shape like a worm. The only virus at the time with that same shape was Marburg virus (discovered 9 years earlier and it kills 90% of people)”
 * Anthony Eauci (national institute of allergies and infectious disease ) “zoonotic disease is a disease fundamentally seen in animals and the viruses can jump species”
 * Dennis Carroll (US Agency for international for international development) viruses also follow the basic rules that Darwin set out for survival, they want to diversify in as many habitats as possible
 * Lina Moses (epidemiologist, Sierra Leone)

Nomination
News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Graphic Design & Art Direction