Pandemics, panics and is it a help or a hindrance that we're so fascinated by contagious diseases?

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak of Ebola which began in West Africa a public health emergency. It is an horrific disease that kills up to 90 per cent of those it infects. The images of its victims are tough to watch on our television screens, but the story only got our full attention when a woman with a suspected case landed at Gatwick earlier this week. Though she did not have Ebola, it brought the panic surrounding the virus closer to home. But is panic always an unhealthy response to a crisis? Can it make us feel solidarity with others and spur us into action, be it scientific, medical or political? Or does the urge to panic betray our own selfish instinct to survive?

Presenter: Aleks Krotoski
Producer: Ruth Watts. Show less