Efforts are underway to curb the outbreak.
CELLOU BINANI/AFP via Getty Images
The virus is always present in nature and when circumstances allow, it may jump from one species to another.
U.S. officials risk public health by equating COVID-19 with places far from home.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Emphasizing foreign origins of a disease can have racist connotations and implications for how people understand their own risk of disease.
The virus that causes COVID-19 seems able to spread to anyone, anywhere.
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While identifying a new disease by its place of origin seems intuitive, history shows that doing so can have serious consequences for the people that live there.
A health worker prepares to administer Ebola vaccination in the north-western Democratic Republic of the Congo.
EPA-EFE/STR
Uganda is the testing ground for a new vaccine that could work on more strains of the Ebola virus and other haemorrhagic fevers.