Several weeks ago, I have discussed about the movie, "Outbreak," which is a fictional movie similar to the Ebola outbreak that is happening today. But for this blog, I would like to talk and critique about the documentary, BBC Horizon 2014 Ebola The Search for a Cure. The reasons why I chose this documentary is because I felt that this documentary show a better perspectives of what is going on today, the scientists and/or physicians approach to the Ebola outbreak and the search for a cure for this deadly disease. The documentary started with an introduction of the Ebola outbreak, where all the employees of CDC: Center for Disease Control were having a meeting discussing the recent outbreak of Ebola and the numbers of death that are associated with it. In this documentary, not only does it gives a background of the history and/or origins of Ebola which was first found near the Ebola river in 1976. Scientists speculated that the virus was acquire from bushmeat, especially from fruit bats which I have also discusses about in the previous blog. One important aspects that was learned from watching this documentary is the major source of the reasons why a certain area in the West Africa, suddenly being struck with high numbers of death due to untrained nuns that was running the "sort of" hospital and by reusing needles and syringes, thus, many individuals were contracting the Ebola virus and dying from it. Another points that I want to discuss is the action of the medical field especially in finding a cure for Ebola. Currently today in the news, alot of pharmaceutical companies have been claiming that they have created a drugs and/or vaccine for Ebola but DO WE KNOW IF THE EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE AND/OR DRUGS ARE EFFECTIVE AGAINST EBOLA? Also, the pharmaceutical companies are not disclosing enough information on the vaccine and/or drugs so can we actually relied on the information that was given. In addition, many people around the world would not understand the situation in which the people in Africa are suffering from because they could only hear about Ebola but do they see what is actually happening in Africa right now? One positive aspects of the documentary is that the production crews were able to show us the situation of what is occurring in Africa. After viewing the scenes where the patients with Ebola being held is just a horrible sight. Other viewers would definitely agree with me that the environment of the so-called treatment facilities and/or hospitals should change. The bedsheets, mattresses, medical equipments and etc, should be changed and replaced with something nice such as what we have in the United States.
It is nice to see a scientific view of Ebola than the movie, "Outbreak" because the documentary was created by BBC, alot more reliable source than a fictional movie. Of course, the movie was pretty entertaining to watch but as the Ebola outbreak is slowly becoming a severe issue around the world, it is nice to watch something about Ebola that is created by a reliable sources. As the audience and a very concerning one, we should understand what is going on around the world especially in the case of Ebola. There are definitely more people contracting Ebola in the near future, so as concerning citizens, we should be alert, understand the background of Ebola, the prevention, what is the physicians and/or scientists trying to do to prevent Ebola and etc. Furthermore, this documentary made several key points on Ebola so I believe this is a very educated and interesting documentary to watch for the general public.
I really enjoyed this documentary. I think some of the highlights of it was the explanation of the etiology of the illness itself. Also it explained who is really affected and just the idea of a vaccination that does exist. As I was watching this and just thinking about the current outbreak at large I realize the U.S. media does not discuss the vaccination at all. It is mentioned briefly once or twice as the treatment plan of those being treated for Ebola in the U.S. but that is as much as they've discussed. I think this goes to show the misrepresentation of the issue. To know the vaccination is helping means it should be discussed further even if it hasn't been tested for a long period of time.
ReplyDeleteI thought this documentary was really cool, it really succeeded in it's main goal which was to show all aspects of the Ebola outbreak, including but not limited to the political, scientific, and cultural nuances that makes this outbreak so unique. On a side, I really enjoyed their british accents that made the video that much more enticing in my opinion! Very informative, I liked it a lot.
ReplyDeleteThis documentary by BBC shows a very reliable view of what the ebola outbreak really is. It is hard to understand what is going on just from what the news is telling us. If more people watched this video, I feel there would be less of a scare than from watching the news. This was definitely a great video to include in your blog. I actually recommended it to my mom to show it to some of the other teachers she works with!
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