A virus hunter in Nigeria has thoughts on the Ebola outbreak

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. There’s no specific treatment or vaccine for this strain, unlike the more common Zaire strain that caused the 2014 outbreak.  Molecular biologist Christian Happi has dedicated his career to improving genomic sequencing capabilities and virus monitoring across the continent of Africa. He joins Flora to discuss the challenges of the current outbreak and his vision for better disease surveillance.  Guest: Dr. Christian Happi is a distinguished professor at Redeemer’s University and runs the Institute of Genomics and Global Health in Nigeria. Other episodes you may enjoy: Inside the Nebraska quarantine facility responding to hantavirus Can ‘Suggestion-Box Science’ Make Public Health More Useful? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.