Medical staff prepare to enter a hospital isolation unit in western Uganda during a suspected Ebola outbreak in 2018.
Sumy Sadurni/AFP via Getty Images
The Sudan strain of the Ebola virus has been identified in Uganda for the first time in more than a decade.
This image shows Ebola virus particles (red) budding from the surface of kidney cell (blue).
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Flickr
Although treatments for Ebola have helped many people overcome this deadly disease, the virus can persist in the brain and cause a lethal relapse.
Nurse Cheedy Jaja in Sierre Leone in 2015, where he helped treat patients with Ebola during the West Africa outbreak.
Rebecca E. Rollins/Partners in Health
Nurses on the front lines of a pandemic need education, training and institutional support.
Some members of New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community defied the government’s ban on gathering for Passover and other religious occasions, Brooklyn, April 16, 2020.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Given that some people look to religious authorities not health officials in times of crisis, faith leaders can promote hand-washing and social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus.
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The biggest lesson has been that controlling a disease outbreak like Ebola is impossible without community trust and engagement.
Ebola posters in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Olivia Acland / Barcroft Media via Getty Images /
Experiences dealing with previous outbreaks of infectious disease can help countries with weak health systems prepare for new health emergencies.
Decontee Sawyer, wife of Liberian government official Patrick Sawyer, a naturalized American who died from Ebola after traveling from Liberia to Nigeria, on July 29, 2014.
AP Photo/Craig Lassig
Immigrants experienced stigma and blame during the Ebola crisis when in fact many were instrumental in stopping the spread of the disease. A scholar who studied that response offers insights.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organisation Director-General, speaking on Ebola at the UN’s Geneva headquarters.
EPA/Martial Trezzinni
The web or network of exposed people can quickly grow from one case if steps aren’t taken early to avoid further onward transmission.
Hugh Kinsella Cunningham/EPA-EFE
The current outbreak refuses to give in to efforts by an international team of health care workers, armed with vaccines and treatment that did not even exist during previous episodes.
Health officer on the front-line in the DRC.
Flickr
The Ebola outbreak in the DRC has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. What does this mean for the outbreak response?
An Ebola treatment centre in North Kivu where the outbreak’s epicentre is.
Flickr/MONUSCO Photos
Borders are porous between North Kivu province of the DRC and neighbouring countries, so the potential for spread is highly likely.
West Africa experienced the worst Ebola outbreak between 2013 and 2016.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC is devastating vulnerable communities already affected by displacement and violence.
During high-stress deadly epidemics, even well-trained responders can get caught up in behaviors that are more harmful than helpful.
AP Photo/Olivier Matthys
The high stress conditions of an outbreak can spread a dysfunctional culture among those working to fight it. A survey after the 2015 Ebola epidemic quantified the issue – and suggests a better way.
Health workers in Liberia at the height of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
Four new Ebola treatments are being tried out in the DRC.
Mali was one of the West African countries affected by the biggest Ebola outbreak ever recorded from 2014 to 2016.
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Without the current experimental vaccine the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has the potential to spiral out of control.
Eva Cornejo Coba/Shutterstock
Banning travel might not always be the best way to respond to a disease outbreak.
Some of the 50 Cuban medical specialists who arrived in Kenya recently to work in under served rural areas.
Supplied
Cuban doctors have specific expertise in dealing with diseases like malaria which remains a major problem in Kenya.
Health workers get ready to spray insecticide in advance of the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to combat the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus in this Jan. 26, 2016 photo.
(AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Recent discoveries of ancient viruses are helping scientists understand their origins.
A Liberian burial team during the world’s biggest Ebola outbreak in 2014.
EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
The response to the latest ebola outbreak in the DRC has been rapid, well coordinated and well resourced.
Tackling local diseases like rabies could help health authorities identify new outbreaks more easily.
N. Bastiaensen/World Organisation for Animal Health
By tackling local threats and controlling existing diseases, countries are able to build the capacity needed to deal with future emerging disease threats.