Professor Paul Griffin

But in the region, it's still causing devastating consequences.

There's still lots of cases, lots of deaths

it's a really challenging environment in which to control such a such a terrible disease with political unrest and conflict still happening and challenges getting resourcing there so there's lots of other suspected cases that may never get tested so we may never know the true extent already and into the future but it is looking like it is not yet controlled we don't have a handle on it we need to get a lot more information as to the extent

that's present already and then step up our efforts to make sure it doesn't spread further.

So this is something that does have the makings of a very terrible situation if those numbers do continue to rise.

And as I say, if we see numbers rise there, it's really just a matter of time before it spills over into neighboring countries and the risk elsewhere.

what will therefore increase.

So now is the time to invest those efforts to control it at that source and minimise the impact for those people in those regions, but also help keep the rest of the world safe by reducing the prospects of transmission outside of that area.

It's a pleasure.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is a type of Ebola.

There's a few main types.

There's a really common one we've seen cause lots of outbreaks.

This is a much less common one that we've only seen contribute to significant numbers probably twice before.

And therefore, it's one we know less about and also don't have a vaccine for.

But it's still one that has a very high mortality rate.

The numbers are a bit weaker because we just haven't seen that many cases to know for sure.

But it's quoted as having a mortality rate of 25% to 50%, so a very serious viral infection.

And the numbers at the moment are already very high.

So it's a very significant situation we're seeing at the moment.