On Thursday, Oct. 23, international leader on epidemiology of infectious diseases, Michael T. Osterholm, spoke on the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa.

Osterholm is the director for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, and he is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He is a New York Times best-selling author and has had hundreds of scientific abstracts, articles and papers published nationwide in publications such as TIME magazine and The New York Times.

Ebola was named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo where it was first discovered in 1976. Since then, there have been twenty-four outbreaks (or isolated case occurrences) documented. Nineteen of these outbreaks were community-wide outbreaks that involved approximately 2,400 cases.

Since Ebola is a contact virus, it can be transmitted through human bodily fluids such as blood, feces, vomit and possibly perspiration. The top five Ebola signs and symptoms that have been seen for all patients contracting the virus are fever, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite. Although Ebola has been remarked to cause bleeding out of orifices, like the nose and anus, Osterholm commented that that symptom has been documented in such small numbers that it is not even considered to be one of the top signs of having the virus.

The main point that Osterholm emphasized was that governmental bodies, such as the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and the WHO (World Health Organization), do not know as much about Ebola as they claim to know.

“There’s still so much that we don’t know about the virus,” said Osterholm.

Osterholm showed two separate reports on Ebola. The WHO predicted that the number of confirmed Ebola cases would reach 20,000 by November, whereas the CDC predicted that the number would be 1.4 million by January (this includes individuals who did not report having Ebola).

“What does this tell us? This tells us that we don’t really know anything. Those numbers are so far apart that you could drive seven convoys through them,” Osterholm joked.

Some of the current care protocols for severely ill patients include replenishing fluids and electrolytes, monitoring and treating other “co-infections,” such as malaria and cholera and a healthy, nutritious and supportive diet.

Due to the major food crisis that is currently happening in Africa, this third care technique has proven to be difficult. Since people have no jobs, schools have been shut down, and the government has shut down. The economy has tanked, and therefore, every commodity is extremely expensive. Gaining the nutritional support that is needed to aid in the recovery of Ebola is an arduous task.

Osterholm encouraged any of the audience members with the proper skill sets to go to Africa and help the relief effort if they could. He emphasized the current need and urgency for skilled healthcare professionals in West Africa.