In March of this year an outbreak of disease in Guinea was confirmed to be caused by the Ebola virus. Now Guinea and two neighboring West African countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia, are in the throes of what has become, by far, the largest ever outbreak of Ebola since the killer virus was first identified in 1976. There have been approximately 10,000 cases to date, including the first-ever transmission of the virus outside of Africa, in cases involving healthcare workers in Spain and Texas. With a case fatality rate higher than 50 percent and the three-country West African epidemic showing no immediate signs of abating, there are a lot of questions:

What is Ebola virus and what do we know about it? What animals are the natural hosts of Ebola? How does Ebola spread? What is being done to stop the epidemic? When will the African outbreak end? What are the chances of the virus spreading to the US more than it has already? What will be the economic impact of Ebola on West Africa and the world? Is Orange County prepared and ready to handle an Ebola case?

Come join a panel of experts who will answer these questions. Hear their analysis and have an opportunity to ask your own questions.

“Ebola: What You Should Know”
with UCI, Stanford, UCSF and University of Hawaii Faculty Experts

Monday, October 27, 2014
6:00-8:00 p.m.
UCI Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium

RSVP online: http://forms.communications.uci.edu/ebola-panel-registration/

Panelists include:

• Michael Buchmeier, UCI. EBOLA VIROLOGY. What is the Ebola virus? How does it infect its victims?
• James Jones, Stanford. EBOLA DISEASE ECOLOGY. What are the natural hosts of Ebola virus? Why does it jump into humans? What is changing in Africa as regards human-animal interaction?
• George Rutherford, UCSF. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PREVENTION OF EBOLA. How is Ebola virus disease spread and how can it be stopped? What is happening in West Africa now?
• Victoria Fan, University of Hawai’i. HEALTH ECONOMICS OF EBOLA IN WEST AFRICA. What are the economic conditions that exacerbated the outbreak in West Africa, and what will be the economic fallout?
• Shruti Gohil, UCIMC. LOCAL INFECTION CONTROL. Is Orange County prepared? What would happen if a suspected Ebola case walked in to the Emergency Department at UCI Medical Center? How is healthcare-associated spread of Ebola prevented?

The event will be moderated by associate professor Andrew Noymer of the program in public health at UC Irvine. Noymer is a medical demographer and epidemiologist specializing in infectious disease mortality. His research mostly focuses on very-long-run trends in infectious disease, from the disappearance of 14th century Black Death to the present. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley, an M.Sc. in medical demography from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and an A.B. in biology from Harvard.

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, UCI Program in Public Health, the Francisco J. Ayala School of Biological Sciences, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, UCI School of Medicine, UCI School of Social Ecology, UCI School of Social Sciences, Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, the Pacific-Southwest Regional Center of Excellence, and the Initiative for Data Science.

For questions, please call Sandra Perez, 949-824-6195.