Ebola epidemic continues

Since our last program on Ebola, the death toll from the disease has more than doubled to 4,800. U.S. and Spanish aid workers sickened by Ebola also transmitted it to medical workers in the U.S. and in Spain - causing widespread media coverage - and leading people to talk of an epidemic of “Fear-Bola.” But there is good news. The West African nation of Liberia has been hardest hit by the disease, with an estimated 6,500 cases. But last week the country reported just 89 new probable cases. There is also evidence the spread of the disease is slowing in nearby Guinea. That said, in Sierra Leone, the third country at the center of the outbreak, there were 435 new cases, a figure that raises concern that efforts to halt the outbreak there have been insufficient. We’ll look at the progress being made in combating Ebola in West Africa. We’ll also talk about how international coverage of the outbreak is affecting people's opinions and attitudes toward the disease and toward people from West Africa.

Our guests:

• Wade Williams, a journalist based in Liberia covering the outbreak for FrontPage Africa
• Musa Sangarie, a program manager for BBC Media Action, a group that trains media professionals
• Leigh Cowart, a science journalist who has covered Ebola for BuzzFeed and The Independent