Ebola: Is lack of testing the problem?
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why was the Ebola outbreak able to spread so quickly? We speak to the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response about Ebola testing shortfalls in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Also on the programme: we examine the relationship between Russia and China as Vladimir Putin fails to reach a gas pipeline deal during a visit to Beijing. Plus, we hear why the Tyrannosaurus Rex had such short arms.
(Picture: A health worker takes the temperature of an M23 rebel in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: Arlette Bashizi/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.5 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.4 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:16.0 | We're going to begin today with the deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. |
| 0:22.1 | The World Health Organization said in an update today that it expected the number of cases |
| 0:26.5 | to rise, describing the risk of the disease spreading regionally as high. So far, this |
| 0:32.5 | type of Ebola, a new one for which there's no vaccine, is believed to have killed 139 people |
| 0:37.9 | with a further 600 suspected cases. |
| 0:41.2 | The WHO has already declared it a public health emergency |
| 0:44.3 | of international concern in the jargon, |
| 0:47.2 | but assisted today it was still of low concern globally. |
| 0:50.3 | And it isn't a pandemic, |
| 0:51.8 | according to the organisation's head, |
| 0:53.7 | Tedros Adonam Gabriesses. |
| 0:56.4 | I determined that the situation was not a pandemic emergency. |
| 1:01.8 | I immediately convened an emergency committee under the IHR, which met yesterday and agreed that |
| 1:09.1 | the situation is a public health emergency of international concern, |
| 1:14.1 | but is not a pandemic emergency. |
| 1:18.0 | Dr. Arali Bagamba is a resident of Bunia, the capital of Eturi province, where the first cases were reported. |
| 1:24.5 | He's a lecturer at a teacher's college there. |
| 1:27.7 | The situation here is very confusing for common people as me. We hear the cases of death and |
... |
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