The ebola outbreak ongoing the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most severe ebola outbreak since the 2014 calamity in west Africa that killed over 11,000 people. Citing figures about this outbreak is a bit tricky because the situation remains extremely fluid.

By the last week of May, there a have been over 20 deaths linked to this outbreak and over 50 suspected cases. But by the time you are listening to this that will inevitably change. So what I wanted to do with this episode is to offer you some broader context for understanding this particular outbreak and also explore how the international response to this outbreak is so profoundly different from the response back in 2014. I could have no better person discuss outbreak than my guest today Laurie Garret. She is a global health expert, pulitzer prize winning journalist and former fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. We kick off discussing the origins of this new outbreak. We then have a longer conversation examining how the response to this outbreak is so profoundly different than the devastating outbreak in West Africa four years ago. This conversation, I think provides you important context for understanding this ongoing emergency in the DRC and how it may evolve.

A New Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo