Original version

BBC World Service Online

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Ebola Boy Emptied Hospital

Werner Strahl

01/10/2014

Ebola Boy Emptied Hospital

BBC World Service - Outlook, Ebola Boy Emptied Hospital

A doctor describes the moment the Ebola virus arrived in a Sierra Leone hospital.

Lucy Ash talks to Werner Strahl, a German paediatrician who was working in Sierra Leone, when staff discovered that a four-year-old patient was infected with the Ebola virus.

70 year-old Werner Strahl is a retired German doctor who heads a small aid organisation called Cap Anamur. They run a specialist children's hospital in Sierra Leone, which has become a model of its kind in West Africa. Werner is based in Germany, but he was visiting the hospital in August this year, as the Ebola virus was spreading towards the capital, Freetown. And when a four-year-old boy came in with symptoms of Ebola, he was unprepared for what happened next.

Armando Fonseca is a 56-year-old independent travel agent in Rio de Janeiro. He has many loyal customers and has won an award for his impeccable service. What's unusual about Armando is that he has never used a computer. Anton Foek went to see for himself how Armando manages a 21st century business with the same technology he started out with in the 1980s.

Phil Hansen is an artist known for his unusual techniques. He's painted the Mona Lisa with hamburger grease, made a portrait of Barack Obama out of dead flies, and used peanut butter sandwiches to depict the Virgin Mary. But his unorthodox approach was borne out of necessity. Phil has a permanent shake in his hand that makes it difficult for him to hold steady a regular pen or brush. 

The Singer-songwriter came to prominence in the American folk music scene of the 1960s, and her songs became the soundtrack to the country's civil rights movement, and the Vietnam war protests. Today she's 73 years old, still supporting causes and still performing. And although her voice remains strong it has changed. She tells the BBC's John Wilson that it has recently given her some cause for concern.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

Ebola Boy Emptied Hospital

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service