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The podcast discusses the Ebola epidemic of 1976, highlighting scientific and social effects. The virus is believed to have originated from consuming an animal, possibly the African fruit bat. It spreads through close contact with infected individuals or their belongings. The disease causes internal bleeding and had severe impacts on society, affecting the economy and food security. Efforts were made to identify the bacteria and develop a vaccine, but no cure has been found. The World Health Organization sent a team of scientists, including a young researcher named Peter Piot. Lessons learned include not underestimating the spread of a disease and not judging someone based on their age. Welcome to our podcast. We will be discussing the epidemic of Ebola. Imagine you are trying to save an innocent, sick child. You carry them in your arms to the hospital, and you almost make it. Almost. You see the light leave their eyes. They die in your own arms, right there in front of you, dead. You have to go back to the parents and try to explain this horror. This was a heartbreaking case of Janek Takagumi, but this is only one of many sad stories that Ebola provoked. Welcome to our podcast where we will be discussing the Ebola epidemic of 1976. Nora, what are some scientific effects of Ebola? There are many scientific effects, but we are going to talk about a specific one. The cause of the epidemic is thought to come from the consumption of an animal that contains the bacteria that today is now called Ebola. A suspected animal is the African fruit bat, which lives in Africa in sub-hara climates. Is that the only scientific effect? No. Another example of scientific effect, the Ebola virus spreads by touching or being in close contact with a person who has died or is sick with Ebola, sharing food or utensils that an infected person has used. It can also spread through blood or body fluids. It can even spread through touching bedsheets of someone who has passed away from Ebola. That has to be it. No, not quite yet. The official name for this disease is Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It was given this name because the first outbreak of Ebola was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, near the Ebola River. Ebola virus caused problems with your clotting system, leading to internal bleeding from small blood vessels. Wow, that has a lot of scientific effects. I wonder if it had any social effects on the community. Well, Nora, it did. Here are some examples. First of all, the epidemic of Ebola impacted society in many ways, including the gross domestic output, which is the total value of the economy's output. It was also a threat to food security because many people had to stop working, so the food output decreased rapidly. The families or victims had to stop doing their customs of bathing and being with the body due to high risk of getting this disease as well. The virus killed many people, taking families apart or splitting them up. Welcome to our podcast. The way the epidemic affected the social community is by how people responded to the Ebola crisis, trying to evacuate healthy people and keep the sick people quarantined and try to slow the spread of the disease. Scientists tried to identify the bacteria and caused as fast as they could, sending it to hundreds of labs and scientists. Once they identified the bacteria, they rushed to make a vaccine, yet there is still no cure for it in a lot of stages. That is really sad. I hope those families were helped and found some comfort. Yeah, hopefully. What tools were used to respond to a school-wide crisis, Nora? Well, one important tool that was used to overcome Ebola was the HWO, the World Health Organization, sent a group of international team of scientists. Among them was a young scientist with the name Peter Piot. Wow, tell me more. Piot was judged for being chosen. He was only 27 years old. Even though he was only 27, he was an essential tool. He asked the people of the village what customs they had figured out that day before the burial of the body. They bathed the body and stayed with the body. He realized by doing this, touching the contaminated blood was inevitable. He was only 27? Wow. Is there any scientific mindset? Yes. The people there had to change their mindset completely. A mindset that the people there had to change was to not do their regular customs. Playing outside, not going outside. And not doing their traditions of praising the dead or bathing them or staying with them the day before the burial. So, what were some lessons learned from this epidemic? One lesson learned was that even though someone is young, they should not be judged. Another was that you should not underestimate something because it can grow and spread faster than you could ever imagine. Next week, we'll be talking about the 1854 outbreak of, you guessed it, cholera. Some of our sources include the Patient Zero book, Impact and Implications article, and What is Ebola Disease? Thank you.