Battling Ebola: Heading Into the Outbreak; NEIDL’s Nahid Bhadelia to Care for Patients, Share Expertise
Original article from: BU Today posted on August 4, 2014. by Carey Goldberg
On Saturday, the first of two sickened American health care workers was flown from Africa to a special containment unit at Emory University. Despite the risk of infection, medical personnel continue to travel to West Africa to help bring under control the worst Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed more than 800 people to date. The World Health Organization plans to spend $100 million to fight the outbreak, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will send 50 more aid workers. In this weeklong Special Report, BU Today talks to Boston University researchers in several fields about why medical personnel confront the risks; the ethical and political dilemmas presented by the outbreak; how the virus kills; efforts to design effective therapies; and other aspects of this unprecedented outbreak of Ebola.
If all goes as planned, Dr. Nahid Bhadelia will soon head straight into the heart of the Ebola outbreak that has already killed more than 800 people in western Africa, including at least 50 health care workers. Global and US health authorities announced Thursday that they would ramp up efforts to bring the epidemic under control, but that it would likely take at least three to six months.