The Horrors of Ebola

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:10]April 2022.

[00:00:18]In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a 31-year-old man has just been admitted to the hospital. He's very sick, explaining to the nurses that he has severe pain in his lower back and his head feels like it's going to explode.

[00:00:36]But before the hospital staff can begin treatment, the man dies.

[00:00:42]It would later be determined that the man had started showing symptoms of his illness nearly 3 weeks before seeking medical attention. During that time, he was exposed to an unknown number of individuals throughout the DRC. All of them now under threat of contracting the same virus that the man had succumbed to.

[00:01:13]If you're like me, you might associate Ebola with its significant media coverage during 2014.

[00:01:21]This outbreak in particular stemmed from the West African nation of Guinea. It wouldn't be long until the World Health Organization declared the situation to be an international public health emergency.

[00:01:36]Back then, they referred to the epidemic as one of the most severe acute public health emergencies seen in modern times.

[00:01:45]Not only was the case fatality rate a high 40%, but medical professionals in the area were not adequately equipped for an outbreak of this size. With the rising number of cases compiled with the dwindling medical resources, it seemed like Guinea wouldn't be able to handle the situation much longer. And as such, Ebola began spreading to other countries in West Africa.

[00:02:16]This was one of my earliest memories of being afraid of a sickness or an outbreak. I remember scrolling through social media at the time and seeing dystopian articles like Ebola victims coming back to life after hearts stopping. It didn't help that at the time pop culture was high on zombie fever. So much so that there was even an entire movie made to capitalize off of the realworld tragedy. Hell, even YouTubers at the time were indulging in this Ebola zombie trend. But despite all of this, the sensational headlines, the movies and content, Guiney's struggle to contain the virus and its spread across multiple countries in West Africa slowly but surely stopped being talked about.

[00:03:08]But as it turns out, the virus never left.

[00:03:13]Just recently, as of May 15th, 2026, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared that an Ebola epidemic had returned.

[00:03:29]In just a matter of weeks, the spread of suspected cases had risen above 900.

[00:03:35]Just 2 days later on May 17th, the director of the World Health Organization declared that the outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern. A sentiment that other concerning outbreaks such as haunt virus did not receive. When doing research on what caused the spread this time around, I was shocked at the information I found. Because when searching the virus online, you'll find a number of pictures and videos of fires burning in the DRC.

[00:04:10]These tents were said to be deliberately set on fire by an angry crowd of individuals attempting to kill the infected people inside. But in the process, a reported 18 infected individuals escaped back into the community, exposing themselves to an unknown number of people.

[00:04:33]So, before we get too deep into the video, I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to check it out. As I sort of mentioned with the video on HANA virus, um all of the information coming out about these breaking news stories is um new and developing. So, as such, there's naturally going to be uh corrections made uh along the way. But, as always, thank you so much for taking the time to check out this video. It does genuinely mean the world to me. And um if you aren't already subscribed and you enjoy the content that you see in this video, uh please consider doing so uh and if you would like to support the channel further, there is a link to the Patreon uh down in the description below. It's just $5 a month. Okay, now with all that out of the way, uh let's get back to the story.

[00:05:17]Unfortunately, what's going on in the DRC right now isn't entirely new. For most of us lucky enough to never have experienced an Ebola outbreak, you might think that it first emerged back in the affforementioned 2014 outbreak. But this isn't the case.

[00:05:36]While 2014 saw the highest numbers of infected individuals up until now, Ebola has been a persistent issue in Africa for some time.

[00:05:52]In western Kenya, a camper has just set up shop alongside the Enzoya River. This camper in particular, a man named Charles, spends most of his time in a tiny wooden bungalow. When he's not outside exploring, he generally keeps to himself. But on one occasion in particular, he and an acquaintance decided to explore a nearby cave. With headlamps attached, they begin their descent. Located within the cave was a number of animal remains, including the petrified bones of ancient hippos and the mummified corpses of elephants. But disturbingly enough, there was something else in the cave, something alive.

[00:06:42]While traveling deeper and deeper, the pair came across a large number of bats hanging from the walls and ceiling of the cave. Beneath them was the remnants of their waist, all of which Charles and his partner had been trudging through for some time.

[00:07:00]The duo would emerge from the cave seemingly unharmed, departing ways and eventually forgetting about their adventure together. But nearly a week later, things began to change.

[00:07:15]Charles had woken up in his bungalow that morning. He had a headache so painful that it made his eyeballs ache.

[00:07:23]The pain seemed to circle around the inside of his head and would not dissipate even with the help of aspirin.

[00:07:31]This headache would eventually turn into nausea and a fever. Charles had apparently vomited so much that it eventually turned into dry heaves. The blood vessels in his eyes and face had popped and became red. After days of missing work, some of Charles work colleagues traveled to his bungalow to check on him. But what they found inside was nothing short of terrifying.

[00:07:58]Charles was still alive, but his eyeballs were bright red. His skin had turned yellow. Charles had also reportedly undergone some sort of personality change. The once quiet and calm-spirited man had now become uncharacteristically sad and angry. He was reportedly able to answer questions, but had no sense of time or space. He was unable to pinpoint exactly where he even was inside his own bungalow.

[00:08:32]Needless to say, Charles was promptly taken to the hospital. By the time the doctors began looking at him, Charles had apparently developed massive bruises across his face. It would later be determined that the connective tissue in his face was actively dissolving. His face was simply hanging from the bone underneath. All the while, Charles could not seem to keep from vomiting. Towards the end, the liquid coming from his mouth was said to be black. Each time this black substance came up from Charles mouth, tiny speckles of the liquid would splatter around the room that he was in. And on the inside, things were getting even worse for Charles. According to doctors, his major organs, as well as his hands and feet and head, were all becoming jammed with blood clots. He was essentially having a stroke within his entire body. This eventually resulted in brain damage which was said to have taken all of Charles's personality with it. But somehow through it all, Charles remained alive. With doctors in Kenya unequipped to handle the situation, Charles was brought on board an aircraft to transport him to a well- reggarded private hospital in East Africa.

[00:09:59]Miraculously, Charles survives the flight and makes it off of the plane.

[00:10:05]But as he enters the room in the private hospital, Charles succumbs to his symptoms.

[00:10:13]This story reads almost as if it's a fictional account written in something like World War Z, but it's not. The disturbing story you've just heard actually happened and is told in more disturbing detail in a book written by Richard Preston known as The Hot Zone.

[00:10:34]The book itself was recommended to me by my friend and fellow YouTuber Frell Maguire. The book itself is widely considered to be one of the best pieces of literature regarding the emergence of the Ebola virus. However, some people seem to think that it's overly dramatic at some points, like during a section in which the author describes the gruesome liquefification of someone's organs. But regardless, the symptoms described in The Hot Zone seem to match up with most modern depictions of the virus. In the climax of the book, Richard even takes a more hands-on approach, flying directly out to Africa and exploring the same cave that Charles did just before contracting the virus while wearing a hazmat suit, of course. As the book comes to an end, Richard writes a final sentence stating that despite Ebola subsiding into the forest, it will eventually return. These words become all the more haunting considering what is actively happening to individuals in West Africa as we speak.

[00:11:47]So, ever since the initial outbreak, there have been dozens of different outbreaks uh throughout Africa um ever since the 1980s with 17 of these in specific happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is kind of crazy. Obviously, as we've mentioned already, the biggest outbreak to date uh came in 2014, which had a total of uh 28,000 cases with um over 11,000 deaths.

[00:12:14]So the question and understandably uh for many is why if there have been so many outbreaks throughout history uh is this one in particular occurring in 2026 um a concern or something to be feared?

[00:12:32]Well, Ebola is particularly scary for a number of reasons. Not only does it have a pretty high mortality rate, but if you're unlucky enough to contract the virus, your final days will most likely be spent in pain like you've never experienced before. The virus is transmitted strictly through direct contact with bodily fluids of a person who has become infected. We tend to think of this as blood or something like someone getting bit or in the case of Charlie, bodily waste. But this can also mean something like intercourse or an infected mother breastfeeding her child.

[00:13:11]Even if you are lucky enough to be in the percentage of individuals who survive the sickness, the virus itself can persist within one's system for more than 3 months after recovery. During this time, it's very easy for recovered individuals to unknowingly infect their loved ones and people close to them. The virus is typically viewed within three stages. The early stage typically occurs about a week to 10 days after exposure.

[00:13:41]During this time, the infected individual will experience what is known as dry symptoms. This includes elevated body temperature, fever, chills, and fatigue. From here, the virus develops to its midstage, which encapsulates what is referred to as the wet symptoms. This includes things like nausea, vomiting, and loose bowel movements. On top of this, people usually report chest pain and intense headaches at this time.

[00:14:13]Should the virus persist, it will finish off in the late stage, which is described as a mixture of internal and external symptoms. Patients experiencing the external symptoms typically develop a mixture of skin lesions.

[00:14:30]Meanwhile, the internal symptoms include multi-organ failure and septic shock.

[00:14:36]This is when the virus is at its most fatal. These symptoms are what makes Ebola so terrifying. For those who have died as a result of the horrible virus, there is no funeral. The common practice is to burn the bodies of infected individuals. That way, there's less of a risk of future contamination.

[00:15:04]This is a quarantine site located in the Dominican Republic of the Congo. When these pictures surfaced, many believed that the fire was coming from one of the affforementioned burnings. But after taking a closer look, this theory was wrong. As more videos began to surface, it became clear that these tents were intentionally being set on fire by individuals in the community. The main theory straight off the bat was that individuals were setting the tents on fire in order to prevent the virus from spreading any further. The thought process was by effectively eliminating anyone who had contracted the virus and anyone who had been in close proximity such as doctors and nurses, the chances of a further spread would be a lot less likely. But this wasn't the case. As I mentioned before, if you're unlucky enough to contract the virus and pass away from it, you won't get a funeral, as even dead bodies can carry the virus after the host has died. The individuals responsible for burning the tents down did so in an act of defiance. When they were told that they would never see their past loved ones again, that they would never get to properly bury them, they became angry. In particular, one of the arsonists was a youth who reportedly didn't understand the protocols for burying a suspected Ebola victim. He had apparently told his family that he wanted to take the body of the deceased loved one home for a funeral, but the security guards around the quarantine zone denied this from happening. While I couldn't find an exact number of any deceased or injured as a result of this arson, I did uncover some concerning information.

[00:16:58]Because during this chaos, it's believed that 18 individuals with the virus escaped the quarantine zone and retreated back into the surrounding community.

[00:17:10]So um as of right now unfortunately we do not have any um you know direct names or or known whereabouts of any of the 18 individuals who uh escaped during the chaos surrounding the uh quarantine camps. All we know is that the cases in the DRC are continuing to rise and even spread into um neighboring countries.

[00:17:33]This spread has naturally prompted a response from many leaders around the world, including the United States, who has since imposed a 30-day travel ban to any affected countries. As I mentioned previously in the HANA virus video, following the election in 2024, the new administration opted to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.

[00:17:59]On top of that, a number of cuts were made to the CDC, which is responsible for research regarding disease and illnesses. With these updates and other cuts to foreign aid, a lot of people think that things in Africa are going to get much worse before they get better.

[00:18:17]When viewing photos of the chaos throughout the DRC right now, a few things are glaringly evident. For example, many individuals directly handling and working with those infected with Ebola are only wearing a face mask.

[00:18:33]There are even certain photos where the mask is hanging on their chin or not present at all. What happened to all of the hazmat suits and other protective gear that we've seen during the previous outbreaks of Ebola? Well, without programs like US aid, there is no one to ensure that factors like proper protective gear are being maintained.

[00:18:56]Not to mention, because the United States is banned from directly correlating with the World Health Organization, things like vaccine development and testing have been slowed down significantly. Of course, there are some individuals who believe it is not the responsibility of the United States to intervene or help alleviate the problem, but prior to the new administration changes, the United States undoubtedly had some of the best resources in the world.

[00:19:27]So, I am happy to report that as of making this video, um there are no known cases of um the Ebola virus outside of Africa. But of course that is being uh very closely monitored. Um there there has been a report of one American in particular uh a gentleman named Peter Stafford who uh was a doctor working in the DRC at the time of the initial outbreak. Um he I believe had contracted the virus and um is currently being treated in Berlin. This is a very um hectic and nuanced issue. So, um, I really appreciate all of you guys, uh, trying to, you know, I guess keep up with me and, uh, sort of figure everything out. As I've sort of mentioned throughout the video, um, if you enjoy this format, uh, I made a video very recently about the haunt virus situation. Uh, so, uh, if you're interested in that, I will leave a link to it at the end of this video. And if you like what you've seen and you would like to see more, please make sure to subscribe to Something Sinister. Please make sure to stay safe out there, guys, and I will see you in the next video.