What does Ebola actually do, and how does it spread?

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]And let's bring in professor of epidemiology at UCLA, Dr. Anne Ramoy for more. Hi Dr. Ramoyne, thanks for coming on. So what does Ebola do to the body?

[00:00:11]>> Well, Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever. And so what will start out as likely um some kind of non-specific kind of illness uh will then uh progress to uh potentially vomiting and diarrhea.

[00:00:28]And then you some people do end up having some of these um hemorrhagic signs. And it's important to note that not everybody um has this kind of dramatic um you know the the the the hemorrhaging the bleeding that that we talk about. Of course that does happen but sometimes the symptoms are are less obvious. And that's why this outbreak uh part of the reason that this outbreak was not noted for an extended period of time because the symptoms are not always clear. It could be some other disease or um and then in addition to that it was because the the diagnostics did not work against this particular species of Ebola virus.

[00:01:13]>> Officials are reporting 513 suspected cases and 131 deaths that could be related to the outbreak. What's your reaction when you hear those numbers?

[00:01:23]>> You know, this is a very serious situation. Uh I've been working in DRC for almost a quarter of a century, and this is the the most serious um situation that I have seen when it comes to Ebola, all of which are very serious.

[00:01:40]You know, the the problem here is that we're late to the party that we don't have information on um on all of the cases. There have been a lot of chains of transmission that have occurred and I think that we can expect to see additional uh certainly expect to see more cases and more deaths as uh the disease surveillance starts to widen and diagnostics start to be available.

[00:02:06]So, how does Ebola spread?

[00:02:09]>> Ebola spreads uh from person to person with bodily uh contact with uh with somebody who has Ebola and in general with uh contact with bodily fluids.

[00:02:19]That's why healthcare workers are often at great risk. People that go to funerals and are hugging each other and um in very close contact, people that live in the same household. Uh so, uh people that are taking care of other people that are sick. Um and so this is why this is a disease that is containable. You just need to have very very good information out there, getting in touch with cases, uh being able to to quarantine those people that have been exposed, isolate the cases, get them good care in places that can actually handle a case without exposing the healthare workers. This is very complex.

[00:02:59]>> So how likely do you think this is to spread beyond central Africa?

[00:03:04]I mean, I think that other countries in the region um certainly are at risk of of having additional cases. We saw this in the West Africa outbreak in uh from 2013 to 2016 where you had several countries affected. Uh I I think that the risk to the general population globally is low but it's very important that we get in front of this because lives are at stake at this particular moment. Uh and and it is something that will exhaust resources. It will affect families. It will affect many many people and it is very very serious virus.

[00:03:45]>> All right Dr. Anne Raoy we appreciate your time today. Thank you.