WHO sounds alarm on Ebola outbreak

Remember that coverage? I do too. And then, Emory in Atlanta has cared for patients like this, as has the quarantine site in Nebraska. But they are already full with hantavirus-exposed people. So we have yet to hear where those people will go.

Do we know that they're still-- we think they're still in the DRC? So far as we know, yeah. And what was alarming about what Adriana laid out is 250 suspected cases, 80 suspected deaths. These numbers seem large for our first warning. So is the suspicion that it may have been out for a few weeks? And if so, what does this global health emergency mean? And how concerned should folks be? Well, this is part of the reason that the director general of the WHO declared this even before they had a full meeting. As soon as he heard had to declare this a public health emergency. It sounds like this may have been actually brewing for a couple of months. So that means there's probably been extensive transmission. Healthcare workers, in particular, are very high risk because they're interacting with these patients without even knowing what's happening. And there are a number of different factors that make this outbreak really scary. I mean, to me, it's PTSD from Ebola 2014. It's over different countries, across borders, migrants who are moving around quite a lot, urban areas. So all of that applies to this. On top of that, you have militants who are in the area. In fact, part of the issue here is the minerals that we have in our smartphones, they do that kind of mining in this area. So there's fighting over access to that. So it's going to be more dangerous to get in there. USAID has been dismantled. We've pulled out of WHO. So a lot of the tools, the people, the supplies that would normally be available to surge and respond are just not available right now.

That's really scary when you put it in those terms. And then, we're heading into what's going to be a global event with the World Cup, people traveling from all over the world to the US. Do you think that Ebola is something that people should be concerned about? My biggest concern for the World Cup is actually measles. It's not hantavirus. It is not Ebola. Yeah, measles is what has me concerned, highly infectious. We're seeing outbreaks in different parts of the world. We, ourselves, could be the source of the outbreak because we have low levels of vaccination in certain pockets of the country. So that is my biggest concern. But should people be concerned that there could be Ebola here in the US again? Remember, we had a traveler from Liberia, went to Dallas Presbyterian Hospital, ended up infecting a couple nurses. Do I think that could happen again? Absolutely. And we have let down our guard. We're not prepared for that right now. Stay close to the news for updates and always listen to Dr. Gounder. Dr. Celine Gounder, great to see you. Thanks for this.