As two Ebola-infected humanitarian healthcare workers are
transported to Emory University in Atlanta for treatment, concern about a
potential outbreak is heating up. Fordham’s Alexander van Tulleken has appeared
on various media outlets to discuss whether such fears are warranted.
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| Alexander van Tulleken, M.D. File Photo by Patrick Verel |
An infectious disease specialist and a senior fellow with
Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, van Tulleken has
appeared on Al Jazeera America, MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry
Show,” and locally, Fox-5 New York, with the same message:
“It’s very hard to catch this virus,” he says of Ebola, of
which there is no cure, and causes hemorrhagic fever that kills at least 60
percent of the people it infects in Africa. Ebola spreads through close contact
with bodily fluids and blood, meaning it is not spread as easily as airborne
influenza or the common cold.
In this interview with New York’s Fox 5, he discussed the
Ebola vaccine currently in trials, and also explained that the virus has been
in the country for some time with the Center for Disease Control’s research.
Watch here:
In this segment with MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, van
Tulleken says that rather than worrying about a vaccine, “what we need to be
doing is containing this epidemic in West Africa.” He also says prevention is
always underfunded. “What we’re seeing is a failure of the international system
to respond to this virus, and this is a virus we should care about for
humanitarian reasons. These countries are really neglected, and that’s why it’s
spreading.”
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| Image via NBC News |
Watch both MSNBC segments below, and visit our YouTube page
for more media appearances by van Tulleken and other Fordham faculty.
-Gina Vergel
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