Dr. Céline Goundermedical correspondent, CBS News · physician, epidemiologist, medical journalist

Ebola Never Tells You Its Name

Name: Ebola Never Tells You Its Name
Uploaded: 2026-06-13T19:05:46+00:00
Duration: 34 s
Channel: Dr. Céline Gounder
Description: In this brief monologue, Dr. Céline Gounder highlights how Ebola can spread undetected when universal disease screening is absent, emphasizing that the…

13 Jun 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:34

In this brief monologue, Dr. Céline Gounder highlights how Ebola can spread undetected when universal disease screening is absent, emphasizing that the virus does not present a clear, identifiable name or symptom set. She recounts a pivotal moment when an MSF clinician recognized Ebola by noting the unusual combination of fever and hiccups, underscoring the vital role of astute clinical observation. Gounder stresses that effective diagnosis depends on patients having unrestricted access to care and feeling safe to disclose full symptom histories; restrictive measures and stigma can cause patients to withhold information, making Ebola especially hard to diagnose and control.

Chapters

when you're not screening everybody for diseases, you miss them. Ebola never tells you its name. It spread in West Africa for months until an MSF doctor said, wait, there's hiccups with the fever. That's Ebola. And if there hadn't been that one clinician that just noticed it, and that really means that you need to be able to have people be able to access care and be able to truthfully access care. And one of the worst things is when you start to put restrictions people start to not tell you the full story. We're totally dependent on what patients tell us, and it's incredibly hard to diagnose. It's hard to diagnose Ebola.