I began covering the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in March 2014. Over the past year, I reported on three main aspects of the epidemic: 1. Science of the virus, including how it spreads, kills and is contained. 2. Epidemiological trends, including why this outbreak is hard to stop, how Ebola got to West Africa and how it exploded into an epidemic. 3. Broader health repercussions of Ebola, including effects on vaccinations and education. Radio Story 1: Dangerous Deliveries: Ebola Leaves Mom And Babies Without Care In Liberia, I heard about many people catching Ebola while helping pregnant women. The problem was so severe that health clinics had stopped seeing all pregnant women. This story uncovers the root cause of this problem and shows how the ripple effects of Ebola could be more catastrophic than the virus. In the radio and Web story, we first hear from a midwife about what happens when a pregnant woman gets Ebola. The woman invariably miscarries or goes into early labor. She bleeds profusely. Many health workers became infected during deliveries, so clinics stopped delivering babies. Next we see firsthand the ripple effects of this shift in maternal care. We hear from a midwife about three women in labor, the night before, who had traveled around the city looking for help. By the time they made it to a hospital that would see them, all three babies had died. The story then places these anecdotes in a broader picture by explaining what could happen if clinics don’t reopen their doors to pregnant women: Across the region, tens of thousands of women and babies could die. Web Story 1: No, Seriously, How Contagious is Ebola? The first Ebola cases in the U.S. triggered widespread fear and misconceptions about the virus. In particular, there was confusion about how easily Ebola spreads. My goal was to clear up this confusion. Instead of simply telling readers the facts, I illustrated data supporting them. I compared Ebola to other viruses by explaining the epidemiological metric, Ro. I worked with an illustrator to communicate the essence of the data in a simple infographic. Then readers could draw their own conclusions about the virus. They could see for themselves that Ebola is less contagious than other viruses. This story got a phenomenal response. It received more than 2.7 million page views and was shared more than 60,000 times on Facebook. Web Story 2: Ebola In The Air: What Science Says About How The Virus Spreads Americans also had misconceptions about whether Ebola was “airborne.” To clear up this confusion, I explained how pathogens can spread through the air in two ways: the airborne route and the droplet route. Some viruses move far distances through the air in suspended clouds of tiny droplets. But Ebola moves in large, fat droplets that quickly fall to the ground. So it can’t spread very far. I designed an infographic to illustrate these two route and explained how Ebola can spread through the airborne route in the lab but not outside of it. Radio Story 2: A Frightening Curve: How Fast Is The Ebola Outbreak Growing? In August, Ebola started to spread exponentially. Disease modelers were predicting massive cases by October if help didn’t arrive. This radio and Web story explains what it means to spread exponentially and why the window for stopping the epidemic was quickly closing. To help the reader draw their own conclusions, I built a chart showing predictions of the epidemic with and without interventions.
