The Heat: Fighting the Ebola outbreak

Ebola Outbreak

At first, the symptoms of Ebola resemble the flu—a fever, weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat. After few days, it reveals itself to be a killer—announcing itself with projectile vomiting, explosive diarrhea and, in some cases, massive internal hemorrhaging.

The Ebola death rate stands at just under 50 percent and it is an agonizing death. Nigeria and Senegal have just been declared clear of the disease by the World Health Organization. But Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea remain the epicenter of a disease still burning its way through the region’s populations.

CCTV correspondent Katerina Vittozzi reports from Monrovia,the capital city of Liberia.

To fight the disease, the U.S. will deploy as many as 4,000 U.S. troops to West Africa—most of them to Liberia. In all, the U.S. has pledged to spend around $750 million for “Operation United Assistance.”

With support from WHO, Cuba has trained more 460 doctors and nurses to treat Ebola. The first group of 165 arrived in Sierra Leone. Another 52 Cuban doctors, nurses and epidemiologists landed in Monrovia last week.

Panel:

Dr. Joanne Liu is the President of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders—an organization that has been spearheading the fight against Ebola.
Journalist Gail Reed, co-produced the award-winning documentary “Salud!” on Cuba and its contributions to global health.

To talk about the Ebola vaccine, and how to stop its spread, we were joined by epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Morse and Dr. James E. Crowe, Jr. Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center.