Question: Are you doing anything about ebola

Sally Cutler answered on 7 Nov 2014:

This is a very topical area at present. Scientists have known about Ebola since about 1976 and outbreaks of infection have happened nearly every year since then, but not on the same scale as the current outbreak. This one is larger and has spilt out of Africa into other countries which has sparked a lot of media attention. Treatments are fairly limited as by the time the diagnosis is clear, it is late into the infection and difficult to control. No vaccines are approved to prevent infection. We do however know some sensible ways of limiting spread and these are being used now with some success. It is also important to remember that far less people have died in total from Ebola during this outbreak than die from tuberculosis each day, but this is never in the news as it is considered un-newsworthy.