Patient Zero was a one-year-old. The world looked away until it couldn't.
FRONTLINE spent months on the ground in West Africa, tracing the Ebola outbreak’s path through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2014 and 2015 and uncovering the hidden story of what happened before the world started paying attention. The documentary shared firsthand accounts from survivors and victims’ family members — from the forest region of Guinea to the bustling Liberian capital of Monrovia — including the father of a one-year-old Guinean child who was believed to be the first person to die in the outbreak.
Writing
Sheri Fink's reporting cuts through bureaucratic fog with surgical precision.
Direction
Dan Edge lets survivors speak while institutions stay silent.
Director
Dan Edge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dan Edge contracted malaria twice while filming. The crew carried personal protective equipment in 40°C heat.
Traditional burial practices—touching and washing bodies—accelerated transmission. The film never judges; it witnesses.
GB
