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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, short wavers. Regina Barber here. And today I'm joined by NPR global health reporter Jonathan Lambert. Hey, John.
Hey, Gina.
So you're here today to talk about the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
Yeah, it's been just about the only thing I've covered over the past month and a half or so. The outbreak has gotten really big, really fast. It's already the third largest Ebola outbreak on record.
That's terrible. So where do the numbers stand right now?
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Chapter 2: What is the current status of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
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OK, so, John, remind us of some of the basics of Ebola.
Yeah, it's a disease caused by a virus, specifically the ortho Ebola virus. The first known outbreak was in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, at least a couple dozen outbreaks have occurred, mostly from East to West Africa.
So what causes an outbreak to occur?
Usually it's a spillover event. That's when a virus that typically circulates in non-human animals jumps from an animal to a human. Scientists aren't sure how many animals harbor Ebola, but they do know that it circulates in some bats.
So how does this virus get from the bat to the human?
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Chapter 3: Why are the official numbers of Ebola cases likely underestimated?
Ebola is a very deadly disease, and its deadliness stems in part from a kind of sneakiness.
Like how? How is it sneaky?
So when the virus first infects a person, it goes straight for key immune cells. Typically, these cells help spur the production of antibodies, which allow the immune system to target a pathogen.
Chapter 4: What challenges are faced in responding to the Ebola outbreak?
But by attacking these cells first, Ebola viruses delay this response. And that gives the virus a huge head start.
This is terrifying.
Yeah, so the virus first goes to the lymph nodes, then to the spleen, the liver, and kidneys, replicating and damaging these tissues as it goes. I spoke to virologist John Connor at Boston University about this. Here's how he put it.
The cleaning and garbage disposal units of the body are backing up. And that backs up into the blood system that has a lot of negative consequences. And these cascading problems can be very damaging. And that's often, that's why you get to death.
One major cause of death is just loss of all these fluids through vomiting and diarrhea. Patients can lose up to 10 liters a day.
That is so much.
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Chapter 5: How did the Ebola outbreak spread undetected for months?
That's like over two and a half gallons.
Yeah. And it's through contact with those bodily fluids or handling infected dead bodies that the virus spreads. So, you know, we compared it to COVID earlier. It's not spread through droplets in the air like that. So Ebola isn't as contagious.
Yeah, but it still sounds like an awful disease.
It is. And that's why health officials are really usually on the lookout for it. And over the last decade or so, countries like DRC that experience a lot of Ebola outbreaks have really beefed up their surveillance systems. For instance, they've built up lab infrastructure so they can test samples that might be from Ebola patients. U.S. foreign aid really helped build up those systems.
And in recent years, it's helped outbreaks get declared relatively early on.
OK, so usually they're caught pretty early, but you're saying that didn't happen for this current situation.
No. So when the outbreak was declared on May 15th, that initial death toll had already reached 65. I track outbreaks like these pretty closely. And when I saw that announcement, I had this like moment of panic that I'd somehow missed earlier reports because the numbers just seemed too big for a new outbreak.
Oh, wow.
Now, health officials suspect the outbreak wasn't new then, and it likely started months ago, perhaps as early as February.
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