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Ebola—The Plague Fighters
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Program Overview
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The Ebola filovirus causes a very deadly and highly contagious
disease. Outbreaks thus far have been limited due to the
implementation of strict isolation, sterilization, and waste
disposal procedures; the remoteness of areas in which the outbreaks
appeared; and the fact that the virus kills so quickly that many of
its victims die before it can be transmitted. Most recently, the
Ebola virus struck in the city of Kikwit in Zaire, Africa, in early
1995 and killed almost 250 people before it was contained. Medical
experts and relief workers went to work quickly to locate victims,
to provide educational and prevention services to neighbors and
families, and to research the Ebola virus. This NOVA program follows
the medical researchers and doctors as they work to prevent the
virus from wiping out an entire community and to locate where the
virus originated.
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