Ebola outbreak and the Friendship Train returns

The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

It’s 10 years since the world’s deadliest outbreak of Ebola started in West Africa. We hear from a survivor and discuss the legacy of the epidemic with the BBC's global health reporter Tulip Mazumdar.

Plus, the first World War Two battalion to be led by an African-American woman. Major Charity Adams’ son tells her story.

We hear about the group of men arrested in Egypt in 2001 at a gay nightclub who became known as the Cairo 52.

We also hear about the avalanche on Mount Everest which killed 16 sherpas carrying supplies 10 years ago.

Finally, the train service between India and Bangladesh that lay dormant for 43 years which rumbled back into life in 2008.

Contributors:

Yusuf Kabba – an Ebola survivor from Sierra Leone Tulip Mazumdar - the BBC's Global Heath reporter. Stanley Earley – son of Major Charity Adams Omer (a pseudonym) - arrested and imprisoned at a gay club in Cairo Lakpa Rita Sherpa - helped recover bodies after the avalanche on Mount Everest in 2014 Dr Azad Chowdhury – on the inaugural Friendship Express

(Photo: Liberian Health Minister Burnice Dahn washes her hands at a holding centre for Ebola patients in 2014. Credit: Getty Images)