Squiz Shortcuts: The Ebola outbreak
6/11/202610 min
You might’ve heard in the news that medical workers in parts of Africa are struggling to bring an outbreak of Ebola under control… The World Health Organisation has declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern rather than a pandemic, but there’s still no vaccine available yet. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll get you across what Ebola is, why there’s another outbreak and what’s next in the public health response… Squiz Recommends: Reading: This story from the BBC which explains why contact tracing has become such a challenge with this outbreak. Listening: This episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast with Oxford University researchers who are working on a vaccine. You can check out the full interview with Peter Lee, with thanks to Minderoo, here. Hosted by Andrew Williams and Alice Dempster Researched by Larissa Huntington Got a suggestion for a Squiz Shortcut topic? We'd love to hear it - email us at hello@thesquiz.com.au Squiz Shortcuts is your back story to the big news stories… Want the email version? Sign up for the free Shortcuts newsletter here.
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First 90 secondsAlice Dempster· Host0:00
This is a Squiz Podcast, [upbeat music] we're your shortcut to being informed. [upbeat music] Medical professionals in parts of Africa are struggling to bring an outbreak of Ebola under control. The World Health Organization has declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern rather than a pandemic, and there's still no vaccine available yet. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we'll get you across what Ebola is, why there's another outbreak, and what's next in the public health response. Squiz Shortcuts is the backstory to the big news stories. I'm Alice Dempster.
Andrew Williams· Host0:42
And I'm Andrew Williams.
Alice Dempster· Host0:43
[upbeat music] Andrew, Ebola has been in the news a lot over the past month. We've spoken about it on Squiz today. But it's because an outbreak in Africa was detected in May. And even though people might have heard of it before, we thought it's a good time to brush up on what we know.
Andrew Williams· Host1:05
Exactly. So this outbreak has spread through the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the DRC, as well as into its neighbor Uganda. Now so far, there have been more than 550 confirmed cases in the DRC and 19 in Uganda, and more than 100 people have died from the disease. But medical experts say the true number of cases could be much higher because this is all happening in a war zone. So there are huge