Q&A: What's Behind Worst-Ever Ebola Outbreak in West Africa?
The disease has killed hundreds, prompting an emergency meeting of nations next week.
The deadliest-ever outbreak of Ebola is spreading rapidly through West Africa and has now infected 635 people, killing more than 60 percent of them so far.
National Geographic talked with W. Ian Lipkin, an expert in viral diseases and the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, about why this outbreak is so much more widespread than previous ones. (Related: "Why Is This Ebola Outbreak Spreading?")
Typically, when we have an outbreak of Ebola, a team goes in, they identify the cases, they identify people who might come into contact with the cases. And as a result of isolation, we're able to contain the outbreak and it peters out fairly rapidly. Here,
