Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS on this Monday, October 13. I`m Carl Azuz. We are starting
with some questions and some answers about the Ebola virus. A healthcare worker in Dallas,
Texas has tested positive for the disease. This is the second time Ebola has been diagnosed
in the U.S., but the nurse who caught it had not traveled to West Africa where the outbreak
is. She works at the hospital where Liberian man died last week from Ebola. And she`d had
extensive contact with him.
Health officials say she wore protective clothing, gowns, gloves, a mask and a shield. But there
had been a "breech of protocol" at some point. We don`t know exactly what that was. We are
getting a lot of questions from you about how someone can touch the Ebola virus. This
is what health officials are saying.
The clock ticking from the moment the Ebola virus enters the body. The disease not easy
to contract, only carried in bodily fluids. And it can only enter the body through direct
contact with cuts or abrasions on the skin or through the eyes, nose, mouth, throat or
reproductive organs. People can also get infected when eating meat from or coming in contact
with contaminated animals.
The virus can survive several hours in a dried state on door knobs or countertops if the
fluid remains wet and at room temperature it can survive for days outside the body.
Most people get it through contact with bodily fluids of patients or the diseased.
But when is someone with Ebola actually contagious? The short answer, when they start to show
symptoms. Those symptoms, though, can take from two to 21 days to kick in. In other words,
a person can travel and interact with others for days or weeks without passing on the virus.
The average incubation period is eight to ten days.
The early symptoms of a disease fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat are
often mistaken for the flu, malaria, typhoid fever or dysentery.
But then things get worse. Vomiting, bloody diarrhea, often internal and external bleeding,
skin rashes and purple spots on the skin. The death rate is high, 50 to 90 percent chance
of death depending on the strain and access to medical care.
If an infected patient with a strong immune system gets proper care the chance of surviving
goes up. And if you survive you have immunity for at least ten years, but what`s still unknown,
if you are immune from other strains of Ebola. Answers and questions for a frightening disease.
The ISIS terrorist group is threatening to take over Kobane, a town in Syria near the
border with Turkey. If it does, a United Nations envoy says ISIS would likely kill 12,000 civilians
there. U.S. officials say a region of western Iraq is also in trouble as ISIS advances,
and this is all happening despite the U.S.-led airstrikes against ISIS.
Is the U.S. -led air campaign against ISIS working and what exactly is the measure of
success?
Now, if you look at the map, ISIS controls about the same amount of territory now as
it did before the campaign started, both in Iraq and in Syria.
Now, speaking to U.S. officials, they are making the argument to me that territory,
at least in Syria, doesn`t matter. They say that there the focus is on degrading ISIS
capabilities from the air, and that means attacking command and control centers, attacking
weapons and also its sources of funding, which means oil installations, because they make
most of their money by selling oil.
Now, in Iraq, they say, territory does matter, and they say that they have made some gains,
particularly in taking back the crucial dams in Haditha and Mosul.
What`s the difference between Syria and Iraq? In Syria, you don`t have a ground force. It`s
going to take more than a year to train those 5,000 moderate rebels that are going to be
the vanguard of a force to fight against ISIS on the ground. In Iraq, you do have a ground
force. Those are the Iraqi security forces and Kurdish fighters. The trouble is, they`ve
had mixed performance as well. They gained back the dams of Haditha and Mosul, but they`ve
lost ground in other cities.
So, what`s the measure of success going forward? U.S. officials tell me that the real measure
of success from the U.S. perspective is, does the U.S. stop ISIS from threatening U.S. interests
both abroad and back home. Trouble with that measure is that that`s something we are only
going to know over the months and years to come of a campaign the U.S. officials are
saying all the time now will last months and years as well.
I have rights. I have the right of education. I have the right to plea. I have the right
to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right
to speak up.
That was Malala Yousafzai. She was speaking up about girls` rights to an education, something
opposed by the Taliban militant group.
About a year after that interview, 15-year old Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban
gunman. She survived, and continued her work to help young women get an education. On Friday,
at age 17, Malala became the youngest person ever awarded a Nobel Peace prize. She shares
it with Kailash Satyarthi of India. The 60-year old activist has led peaceful demonstrations
against child slavery and forced labor.
The fact that the award is shared is significant. Malala is a Pakistani Muslim, Satyarthi is
an Indian Hindu. Their nations are rivals. Malala says the award gives a message to people
of love between Pakistan and India and between different religions.
Malala came to the press conference direct from school. She spoke mostly without note
(ph), she talked for about 15 minutes, and she described how she`d been in the chemistry
lesson at 10:15 in the morning, and she knew it was an important day, she knew the Nobel
Peace awards were going to be announced, and at 10:15 she had said to herself, that she
didn`t expect that she was going to get the award. Then a teacher came to the chemistry
class where she was, and she was taken to one side told that she had won the award,
but she decided despite that that she would stay and finish her lesson. She had a physics
lesson before coming and giving the speech. And she talked about how she felt honored
to have received this award.
I`m feeling honored that I`m being chosen as a Nobel laureate, and I have been honored
with this - this precious award to the Nobel Peace Prize. And I`m proud that I`m the first
Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person who`s getting this award.
It`s a great honor for me.
She said as well how the award had given her encouragement. Encouragement to believe in
herself. She thanked her father for as she said not clipping her wings, giving her the
opportunity of education the other children weren`t getting. And she said it was important
for other children to listen to the message from this award, that they should stand up,
not wait for other people to help them stand up for their rights, but just stand up themselves,
use their own voices. But she also told about the other message from the Nobel awards committee,
a message of love, she said, that she`d been paired in this award with a Hindu where she
was a Muslim. She thought about this being an important message for the Nobel Committee.
It gives the message to people. It gives the message to people of love between Pakistan
and India and between - between different religions, and we both support each other.
It does not matter what`s the color of your skin, what language do you speak, what religion
you believe in. It is that we should all consider each as there is human beings and we should
respect each other.
The transcript page at cnnstudentnews.com the one place to request a mention on our
"Roll Call." From Fridays` transcript, we`ve got the Colts here today representing Cumberland
Regional High School in Seabrook, New Jersey.
We`ve got the Tigers on the prowl. Hello, Breaux Bridge High School in Breaux Bridge,
Louisiana. What`s up, Bro? And in eastern Canada, the province of Ontario, it`s the
chief said Chankousi (ph) Secondary School rounding out or roll.
Here`s one for you. This horse walks into a police station, right? It`s not a joke.
This - happened recently in Cheshire, England. The story and some puns from Cheshire police,
we were somewhat saddled with our unexpected guest who quickly became the main event of
the night shift and at nay point did the horse pose a risk to security. Police say he looked
well cared for, he even showed himself out. Well-mannered. For a moment it was an arresting
development, but the horse didn`t shy away from responsibility. He knew when to hoof
it, no one needed to trot him out and he caused no unbridal (ph) damage because who would
have ponied up for that? That`s enough horsing around. I`m Carl Azuz, CNN STUDENT NEWS rides
again on Tuesday.