Hear Dr. Arthur Reingold, professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health answer to some basic Ebola queries


What's Ebola, and how dangerous is it?

ARTHUR REINGOLD: Ebola is a virus, it's what we call a hemorrhagic fever virus, so it causes high fever. It causes bleeding, and it's a virus that's found in Africa, usually in bats, and then spreads to people. It's a highly lethal virus when it gets into a person, with 50 or 60 percent of such people dying once they develop symptoms.

How does Ebola spread?

ARTHUR REINGOLD: Well, once people develop symptoms, the virus is in various bodily fluids. It's in blood, it's in vomit, it's in diarrhea, and we think it can be in tears or in saliva or in sweat. So the virus is spread through direct contact with an ill individual with Ebola and contact with their bodily fluids or sometimes direct contact with the body while the person is alive or while preparing the body for burial.

Why is Ebola spreading?

ARTHUR REINGOLD: Well, within the African countries where it's spreading, it's primarily a function of poverty. These are among the world's poorest countries, and they basically have very, very little money to spend on health and health care. So even the most rudimentary things that you might have readily available here, such as gloves and masks and gowns, are typically not available to a health-care worker in countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia.

What should we be doing to keep safe?

ARTHUR REINGOLD: Well, I think we as a country need to be helping these countries deal with the problem within their own countries. We as individuals here in the United States really can go about our normal business. Unless someone is either traveling to the region or in direct contact with an ill individual from one of these countries, they're really not at risk of Ebola, and they really don't need to change their day-to-day activities.

What's the role of the School of Public Health?

ARTHUR REINGOLD: Well, I think there are basically two roles. Some of us on the faculty provide guidance and are on advisory committees to the World Health Organization and the CDC. But in addition, we're training many of the people who are actively involved in the response to Ebola. So people who are leading the response, both at the World Health Organization and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, happen to be alumni of the--of the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. So I think the training function--making sure that the people who leave our school are well prepared to go into the field and deal with these types of problems--is certainly one of our contributions.