[Announcer] The current Ebola outbreak is the largest Ebola
outbreak in history and the first ever in West Africa.
At CDC, our mission is to prevent, detect,
and stop disease outbreaks wherever they occur.
And that's why CDC disease detectives are hard
at work twenty-four-seven in West Africa.
[Raczniak] Hi.
Greg, here.
I'm with Ishmael, and we're going out with our UN colleagues
to train contact tracers.
[Announcer] In the fight against Ebola,
one of the most important tools we have
to prevent spread is contact tracing.
[Woman #1: speaking African dialect] [Announcer] In fact,
it is the key to stopping the outbreak and saving lives.
[Woman #2] She wanted to know how we are going on,
anybody who has been sick, anybody who has been hospital.
[Announcer] Contact tracing means finding everyone who comes
in direct contact with a sick Ebola patient.
We ask the Ebola patient or their family
who the patient had contact
with since they started their symptoms.
These contacts are then found and watched for symptoms
of sickness for 21 days to see if they become ill.
If a contact begins to show symptoms of Ebola,
he is immediately isolated, tested and provided care-
and the cycle starts again.
All of the new patient's contacts must be found
and watched for symptoms of sickness for 21 days
to see if they become ill.
The process is repeated until there are no new patients.
[Raczniak] That's how we're gonna stop the transmission
chain of Ebola.
[Announcer] Contact tracing identifies new Ebola cases
quickly so they can be isolated as soon as they show symptoms,
preventing spread to others.
In the event someone with Ebola travels to another country,
we would use contact tracing there as well.
The truth is: even one missed contact can keep the
outbreak going.
But by carefully tracing all contacts and isolating new cases
as soon as they develop symptoms,
we can prevent further spread.
By working together, CDC and its partners will stop the outbreak
and save lives from this devastating disease.