Global News What Happened To...?

Brazil was among one of the countries most affected by the Zika virus in 2015 and 2016 but Dr. Carlos Pardo, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, said the virus emerged in the 1950s.

Zika virus is an arbovirus — a type of virus that is transmitted by certain kinds of insects like mosquitos. The ades Aegypti mosquito, which is primarily found in tropical climates, is a known carrier of the virus. It can also be sexually transmitted.

In 2015, Germana Soares, who lives in Brazil, was infected with Zika virus. Soares was 12 weeks pregnant when she became ill, but at the time, doctors believed there was no harm to the baby.

In November, just before she gave birth, Soares said local news stations began reporting a link between Zika and microcephaly with women who were pregnant.

Days after his birth, doctors confirmed the diagnosis; Guilherme had microcephaly.

Pardo said only 20 per cent of infected people show symptoms, but the risk rests with pregnant mothers as Zika is known to also cause Congenital Zika Syndrome and microcephaly in fetuses.

Microcephaly occurs in these children when their mothers are infected with Zika while pregnant, he said. The fetus develops viral illness and eventually encephalitis.

The World Health Organization estimated at the height of the epidemic, there were over 216,207 probable cases of acute Zika virus disease reported in Brazil, and thousands of babies were born with complications.

Anis Institute for Bioethics, a not-for-profit organization in Brazil, has been one of the leading organizations advocating for women and families affected by the Zika epidemic.

Luciana Brito, researcher and psychologist for Anis Institute for Bioethics, said since the beginning of the epidemic, over 19,000 babies have been born with suspected Congenital Zika Syndrome.

On this episode of What Happened To...?, Erica Vella revisits the 2015 Zika epidemic and finds out if the virus is still a threat. She also speaks with the families impacted virus who share what life has been like.

Contact:

Twitter: @ericavella

Email: [email protected]

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Eleven years ago, Haiti was rocked by a seven-magnitude earthquake that killed, injured and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Franciscot Auguste was living in the country at the time with his mother and four other siblings.

He said Jan. 12, 2010, started out like a normal day that is until he realized the shaking he was feeling was an earthquake; he acted immediately and ran outside of the building.

20 seconds after he escaped the three storey building came crumbling down and he heard chaos around him.

Shock and adrenaline coursed through Auguste; he escaped death by seconds. He thought everyone made it out safely, but his brother was still unaccounted for.

13-year-old brother, Peterson Auguste, was killed by the earthquake.

In the days after the earthquake international foreign aid began flooding into the country; more than $13-billion was pledged to help rebuild the small Caribbean country.

On this episode of Global News What Happened To...?, Erica Vella finds out what happened to the money that was raised. She also finds out what happened to Franciscot Auguste and how his life changed after the earthquake.

Contact:

Twitter: @ericavella

Email: [email protected]

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On this episode of the Global News What Happened To...?, journalist Erica Vella revisits the story of Alan Kurdi and the Syrian refugee crisis (Part 2)

In 2012, Ruba Bilal was living in Damascus, Syria with her husband and two sons; she had reached a level of stability in her life, but the country where she had lived her whole life was in the middle of a dangerous civil war.

Bilal said she was an activist in her community and worked on providing aid to people who were in areas that were under siege, but her family had concerns that she would be taken and detained because of the work she was doing.

That year, Bilal and her family felt tensions beginning to mount and she said they made the decision to temporarily relocate to Lebanon.

As the civil war continued, it was clear Bilal and her family would never have the chance to return to Syria and she submitted an application to LifeLife Syria, an organization that connects Syrian refugees with potential sponsors in Canada.

In 2016, she learned her family would be coming to Canada as privately sponsored refugees.

Bilal and her family were one of thousands who came to Canada in 2016, after the federal government made promises to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees.

The commitment came after a photo of two-year-old Alan Kurdi garnered international attention on the dangers refugees undertake to seek safety.

Kurdi and his family were attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat after fleeing war-torn Syria. On the journey Alan, his brother Ghalib and mother Rehana perished; Abdullah Kurdi, Alan and Ghalib's father, was the only one to survive.

On this episode of Global News What Happened To...?, Erica Vella speaks with Bilal about how she and her family adapted to life in Canada. She also finds out what happened to the Kurdi family and if the federal government has continued its commitment to resettle refugees in Canada.

Contact:

Twitter: @ericavella

Email: [email protected]

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In early September in 2015, a photo of a young boy lying lifeless on a beach in the Mediterranean captured the world’s attention. The picture showed two-year-old Alan Kurdi lying face down in the sand.

Kurdi and his family were attempting to cross the Mediterranean by boat after fleeing war-torn Syria, but on the journey Alan, his brother Ghalib and mother Rehana perished; Abdullah Kurdi, the family’s father and husband, was the only one to survive.

Tima Kurdi, Abdullah’s sister and Alan’s aunt, spoke about the night the family boarded the boat in Bodrum, Turkey.

Tima said she went to grab her phone and noticed she had dozens of missed calls; she called her sister-in-law who was living in Turkey.

The journey the Kurdi family took was one thousands of Syrians attempted at the height of the civil war.

On this episode of the Global News What Happened to...? journalist Erica Vella revisits the story of Alan Kurdi and the Syrian refugee crisis and speaks with Tima about the Kurdi family’s devastating journey and finds out how the photo of Alan mobilized Canada to take action and help thousands of Syrians fleeing persecution.

Contact:

Twitter: @ericavella

Email: [email protected]

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On this episode of the Global News What Happened To...? journalist Erica Vella revisits the 2013 Lac Megantic train derailment.

In the early hours of July 6, 2013, a train carrying petroleum crude oil crashed into the centre of Lac Megantic, a small town in Quebec.

The downtown core erupted in flames; 47 people perished, 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes. The tragedy marks one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history.

The incident happened at 1:15 a.m. July 6, 2013, when a runaway train with 72 oil tankers — owned and operated by the now-bankrupt railway company Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway Ltd. (MMA) — barreled into the town at over 100 km/h.

Along with the 47 deaths, much of the town was also destroyed.

The Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the derailment and found 18 factors led to the Lac-Megantic disaster, including poor training, mechanical problems and sloppy safety oversight, a Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigation concluded.

Three men, Tom Harding, Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre, were charged following the derailment, but in 2018 a jury had found the men not guilty.

On this episode of Global News What Happened To...?, Erica Vella visits the town of Lac Megantic to speak with people who witnessed the tragedy over seven years ago. She describes what the town looks like know and finds out if any changes were made to ensure a derailment like this never happens again.

Contact:

Twitter: @ericavella

Email: [email protected]

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