0:00:00.697,0:00:05.383
When I was invited to give this talk [br]a couple of months ago,

0:00:05.383,0:00:08.893
we discussed a number [br]of titles with the organizers,

0:00:08.893,0:00:12.308
and a lot of different items were [br]kicked around and were discussed.

0:00:12.308,0:00:14.349
But nobody suggested this one,

0:00:14.349,0:00:17.278
and the reason for that[br]was two months ago,

0:00:17.278,0:00:20.190
Ebola was escalating exponentially

0:00:20.190,0:00:24.553
and spreading over wider geographic areas[br]than we had ever seen,

0:00:24.553,0:00:27.822
and the world was terrified, [br]concerned and alarmed

0:00:27.822,0:00:32.790
by this disease, in a way we've not [br]seen in recent history.

0:00:32.790,0:00:38.960
But today, I can stand here [br]and I can talk to you about beating Ebola

0:00:38.960,0:00:42.651
because of people [br]whom you've never heard of,

0:00:42.656,0:00:49.815
people like Peter Clement, a Liberian [br]doctor who's working in Lofa County,

0:00:49.815,0:00:55.294
a place that many of you have [br]never heard of, probably, in Liberia.

0:00:55.294,0:00:57.684
The reason that Lofa County [br]is so important

0:00:57.684,0:01:00.115
is because about five months ago,

0:01:00.115,0:01:04.533
when the epidemic was [br]just starting to escalate,

0:01:04.533,0:01:09.477
Lofa County was right at the center, [br]the epicenter of this epidemic.

0:01:09.477,0:01:13.222
At that time, MSF[br]and the treatment center there,

0:01:13.222,0:01:16.097
they were seeing dozens of patients [br]every single day,

0:01:16.097,0:01:20.345
and these patients, these communities[br]were becoming more and more terrified

0:01:20.345,0:01:24.713
as time went by, with this disease [br]and what it was doing to their families,

0:01:24.713,0:01:28.329
to their communities, [br]to their children, to their relatives.

0:01:28.329,0:01:33.092
And so Peter Clement was charged with [br]driving that 12-hour-long rough road

0:01:33.092,0:01:37.339
from Monrovia, the capital,[br]up to Lofa County,

0:01:37.339,0:01:41.701
to try and help bring control[br]to the escalating epidemic there.

0:01:41.701,0:01:47.063
And what Peter found when he arrived was[br]the terror that I just mentioned to you.

0:01:47.063,0:01:51.304
So he sat down with the local chiefs, [br]and he listened.

0:01:51.304,0:01:54.945
And what he heard was heartbreaking.

0:01:54.945,0:01:59.279
He heard about the devastation [br]and the desperation

0:01:59.279,0:02:02.578
of people affected by this disease.

0:02:02.578,0:02:04.656
He heard the heartbreaking stories

0:02:04.656,0:02:08.103
about not just the damage[br]that Ebola did to people,

0:02:08.103,0:02:11.299
but what it did to families [br]and what it did to communities.

0:02:12.589,0:02:16.999
And he listened to the local chiefs there[br]and what they told him --

0:02:16.999,0:02:20.443
They said, "When our children are sick, [br]when our children are dying,

0:02:20.443,0:02:24.247
we can't hold them at a time when [br]we want to be closest to them.

0:02:24.247,0:02:28.937
When our relatives die, we can't take care[br]of them as our tradition demands.

0:02:28.937,0:02:31.617
We are not allowed to wash [br]the bodies to bury them

0:02:31.617,0:02:34.801
the way our communities and [br]our rituals demand.

0:02:34.801,0:02:38.208
And for this reason, they were[br]deeply disturbed, deeply alarmed

0:02:38.208,0:02:41.995
and the entire epidemic [br]was unraveling in front of them.

0:02:41.995,0:02:44.911
People were turning on the healthcare [br]workers who had come,

0:02:44.911,0:02:48.265
the heroes who had come to try [br]and help save the community,

0:02:48.265,0:02:53.184
to help work with the community,[br]and they were unable to access them.

0:02:53.184,0:02:58.402
And what happened then was [br]Peter explained to the leaders.

0:02:58.402,0:03:01.137
The leaders listened. [br]They turned the tables.

0:03:01.137,0:03:04.744
And Peter explained what Ebola was.[br]He explained what the disease was.

0:03:04.744,0:03:07.019
He explained what it did[br]to their communities.

0:03:07.019,0:03:12.177
And he explained that Ebola threatened [br]everything that made us human.

0:03:12.177,0:03:16.563
Ebola means you can't hold your children[br]the way you would in this situation.

0:03:16.563,0:03:18.873
You can't bury your dead [br]the way that you would.

0:03:18.873,0:03:23.516
You have to trust these people [br]in these space suits to do that for you.

0:03:23.516,0:03:26.865
And ladies and gentlemen, what [br]happened then was rather extraordinary:

0:03:26.865,0:03:30.111
The community and the health workers, [br]Peter, they sat down together

0:03:30.111,0:03:35.168
and they put together a new plan [br]for controlling Ebola in Lofa County.

0:03:35.168,0:03:39.642
And the reason that this is such [br]an important story, ladies and gentlemen,

0:03:39.642,0:03:44.736
is because today, this county, which is [br]right at the center of this epidemic

0:03:44.736,0:03:47.563
you've been watching, [br]you've been seeing in the newspapers,

0:03:47.563,0:03:51.306
you've been seeing on [br]the television screens,

0:03:51.306,0:03:57.393
today Lofa County is nearly eight weeks[br]without seeing a single case of Ebola.

0:03:57.393,0:04:04.439
(Applause)

0:04:04.449,0:04:07.872
Now, this doesn't mean that [br]the job is done, obviously.

0:04:07.872,0:04:11.128
There's still a huge risk[br]that there will be additional cases there.

0:04:11.128,0:04:14.392
But what it does teach us [br]is that Ebola can be beaten.

0:04:14.392,0:04:16.049
That's the key thing.

0:04:16.049,0:04:17.216
Even on this scale,

0:04:17.216,0:04:21.113
even with the rapid kind of growth[br]that we saw in this environment here,

0:04:21.113,0:04:24.571
we now know Ebola can be beaten.

0:04:24.571,0:04:28.562
When communities come together [br]with health care workers, work together,

0:04:28.562,0:04:31.235
that's when this disease can be stopped.

0:04:31.235,0:04:34.885
But how did Ebola end up[br]in Lofa County in the first place?

0:04:34.885,0:04:39.577
Well, for that, we have to go back [br]12 months, to the start of this epidemic.

0:04:39.577,0:04:42.828
And as many of you know, [br]this virus went undetected,

0:04:42.828,0:04:46.803
it evaded detection for three [br]or four months when it began.

0:04:46.803,0:04:49.466
That's because this is not [br]a disease of West Africa,

0:04:49.466,0:04:52.611
it's a disease of Central Africa, [br]half a continent away.

0:04:52.611,0:04:54.547
People hadn't seen the disease before;

0:04:54.547,0:04:57.156
health workers hadn't seen [br]the disease before.

0:04:57.156,0:04:59.324
They didn't know what [br]they were dealing with,

0:04:59.324,0:05:01.383
and to make it [br]even more complicated,

0:05:01.383,0:05:05.951
the virus itself was causing a symptom,[br]a type of a presentation

0:05:05.951,0:05:08.216
that wasn't classical of the disease.

0:05:08.216,0:05:12.631
So people didn't even recognize [br]the disease, people who knew Ebola.

0:05:12.631,0:05:16.490
For that reason it evaded detection [br]for some time,

0:05:16.490,0:05:19.660
But contrary to public belief [br]sometimes these days,

0:05:19.660,0:05:25.175
once the virus was detected, [br]there was a rapid surge in of support.

0:05:25.175,0:05:30.236
MSF rapidly set up an Ebola treatment [br]center, as many of you know, in the area.

0:05:30.236,0:05:33.330
The World Health Organization[br]and the partners that it works with

0:05:33.330,0:05:37.005
deployed eventually hundreds of people [br]over the next two months

0:05:37.005,0:05:39.393
to be able to help track the virus.

0:05:39.393,0:05:43.424
The problem, ladies and gentlemen,[br]is by then, this virus,

0:05:43.424,0:05:46.977
well known now as Ebola, [br]had spread too far.

0:05:46.977,0:05:50.186
It had already outstripped what was [br]one of the largest responses

0:05:50.186,0:05:53.995
that had been mounted so far[br]to an Ebola outbreak.

0:05:53.995,0:05:56.403
By the middle of the year,[br]not just Guinea

0:05:56.403,0:06:00.366
but now Sierra Leone and Liberia[br]were also infected.

0:06:00.366,0:06:05.233
As the virus was spreading geographically,[br]the numbers were increasing

0:06:05.233,0:06:10.289
and at this time, not only were [br]hundreds of people infected

0:06:10.289,0:06:12.168
and dying of the disease,

0:06:12.168,0:06:14.907
but as importantly,[br]the front line responders,

0:06:14.907,0:06:17.750
the people who had gone to try and help,

0:06:17.750,0:06:20.892
the health care workers, the other [br]responders

0:06:20.892,0:06:23.498
were also sick and dying by the dozens.

0:06:23.934,0:06:26.882
The presidents of these countries [br]recognized the emergencies.

0:06:26.882,0:06:30.422
They met right around that time, [br]they agreed on common action

0:06:30.422,0:06:34.640
and they put together an emergency [br]joint operation center in Conakry

0:06:34.640,0:06:38.960
to try and work together to finish this[br]disease and get it stopped,

0:06:38.960,0:06:41.712
to implement the strategies[br]we talked about.

0:06:42.242,0:06:46.199
But what happened then was something [br]we had never seen before with Ebola.

0:06:46.199,0:06:49.785
What happened then was the virus, [br]or someone sick with the virus,

0:06:49.785,0:06:53.181
boarded an airplane, [br]flew to another country,

0:06:53.181,0:06:57.323
and for the first time,[br]we saw in another distant country

0:06:57.323,0:06:59.879
the virus pop up again.

0:06:59.879,0:07:04.286
This time it was in Nigeria,[br]in the teeming metropolis of Lagos,

0:07:04.286,0:07:06.245
21 million people.

0:07:06.245,0:07:09.228
Now the virus was in that environment.

0:07:09.228,0:07:12.768
And as you can anticipate, [br]there was international alarm,

0:07:12.768,0:07:16.536
international concern on a scale that [br]we hadn't seen in recent years

0:07:16.536,0:07:18.990
caused by a disease like this.

0:07:18.990,0:07:23.630
The World Health Organization immediately [br]called together an expert panel,

0:07:23.630,0:07:27.251
looked at the situation, [br]declared an international emergency.

0:07:27.256,0:07:32.346
And in doing so, the expectation would be[br]that there would be a huge outpouring

0:07:32.346,0:07:35.316
of international assistance[br]to help these countries

0:07:35.316,0:07:39.034
which were in so much trouble[br]and concern at that time.

0:07:39.364,0:07:42.111
But what we saw was [br]something very different.

0:07:42.341,0:07:45.869
There was some great response.

0:07:45.869,0:07:50.630
A number of countries came to assist --[br]many, many NGOs and others, as you know,

0:07:50.630,0:07:54.046
but at the same time, the opposite [br]happened in many places.

0:07:54.046,0:07:58.161
Alarm escalated, and very soon [br]these countries found themselves

0:07:58.161,0:08:02.556
not receiving the support they needed,[br]but increasingly isolated.

0:08:02.556,0:08:07.290
What we saw was commercial airlines[br][stopped] flying into these countries

0:08:07.290,0:08:09.881
and people who hadn't even been[br]exposed to the virus

0:08:09.881,0:08:12.043
were no longer allowed to travel.

0:08:12.043,0:08:15.971
This caused not only problems, obviously, [br]for the countries themselves,

0:08:15.971,0:08:18.093
but also for the response.

0:08:18.093,0:08:21.055
Those organizations that were [br]trying to bring people in,

0:08:21.055,0:08:23.261
to try and help them[br]respond to the outbreak,

0:08:23.261,0:08:25.193
they could not get [br]people on airplanes,

0:08:25.193,0:08:28.392
they could not get them into the [br]countries to be able to respond.

0:08:28.392,0:08:30.404
In that situation,[br]ladies and gentleman,

0:08:30.404,0:08:33.639
a virus like Ebola takes advantage.

0:08:33.639,0:08:38.577
And what we saw then was something [br]also we hadn't seen before.

0:08:38.577,0:08:41.733
Not only did this virus [br]continue in the places

0:08:41.733,0:08:45.324
where they'd already become infected,[br]but then it started to escalate

0:08:45.324,0:08:47.692
and we saw the case numbers[br]that you see here,

0:08:47.692,0:08:50.746
something we'd never seen before[br]on such a scale,

0:08:50.746,0:08:53.783
an exponential increase of Ebola cases

0:08:53.783,0:08:58.024
not just in these countries or the areas [br]already infected in these countries

0:08:58.024,0:09:01.883
but also spreading further and [br]deeper into these countries.

0:09:01.883,0:09:04.947
Ladies and gentleman,[br]this was one of the most concerning

0:09:04.947,0:09:09.772
international emergencies in public health[br]we've ever seen.

0:09:10.502,0:09:12.553
And what happened in these countries then,

0:09:12.553,0:09:16.742
many of you saw, again, on the television,[br]read about in the newspapers,

0:09:16.742,0:09:22.102
we saw the health system start to collapse[br]under the weight of this epidemic.

0:09:22.102,0:09:26.722
We saw the schools begin to close, [br]markets no longer started,

0:09:26.722,0:09:30.042
no longer functioned the way [br]that they should in these countries.

0:09:30.042,0:09:34.161
We saw that misinformation and [br]misperceptions started to spread

0:09:34.161,0:09:37.645
even faster through the communities,[br]which became even more alarmed

0:09:37.645,0:09:39.260
about the situation.

0:09:39.260,0:09:42.844
They started to recoil from those people [br]that you saw in those space suits,

0:09:42.844,0:09:45.091
as they call them, [br]who had come to help them.

0:09:45.091,0:09:48.118
And then the situation[br]deteriorated even further.

0:09:48.118,0:09:50.800
The countries had to declare[br]a state of emergency.

0:09:50.800,0:09:56.205
Large populations needed to be quarantined[br]in some areas, and then riots broke out.

0:09:56.205,0:09:59.975
It was a very, very terrifying situation.

0:09:59.975,0:10:02.834
Around the world,[br]many people began to ask,

0:10:02.834,0:10:06.803
can we ever stop Ebola [br]when it starts to spread like this?

0:10:06.803,0:10:11.255
And they started to ask, how well [br]do we really know this virus?

0:10:11.585,0:10:14.740
The reality is we don't know [br]Ebola extremely well.

0:10:14.740,0:10:18.735
It's a relatively modern disease[br]in terms of what we know about it.

0:10:18.735,0:10:21.020
We've known the disease only for 40 years,

0:10:21.020,0:10:24.502
since it first popped up[br]in Central Africa in 1976.

0:10:24.502,0:10:27.582
But despite that, we do know many things:

0:10:27.582,0:10:31.805
We know that this virus[br]probably survives in a type of a bat.

0:10:31.805,0:10:34.921
We know that it probably enters [br]a human population

0:10:34.921,0:10:37.528
when we come in contact with a wild animal

0:10:37.528,0:10:41.086
that has been infected with the virus [br]and probably sickened by it.

0:10:41.086,0:10:44.307
Then we know that the virus[br]spreads from person to person

0:10:44.307,0:10:46.580
through contaminated body fluids.

0:10:46.580,0:10:48.071
And as you've all seen,

0:10:48.071,0:10:51.553
we know the horrific disease[br]that it then causes in humans,

0:10:51.553,0:10:56.071
where we see this disease cause[br]severe fevers, diarrhea, vomiting,

0:10:56.071,0:11:02.541
and then unfortunately, in 70 percent[br]of the cases or often more, death.

0:11:02.541,0:11:07.884
This is a very dangerous,[br]debilitating, and deadly disease.

0:11:08.344,0:11:12.517
But despite the fact that we've not known[br]this disease for a particularly long time,

0:11:12.517,0:11:17.394
and we don't know everything about it,[br]we do know how to stop this disease.

0:11:17.394,0:11:20.608
There are four things[br]that are critical to stopping Ebola.

0:11:20.608,0:11:24.922
First and foremost, the communities [br]have got to understand this disease,

0:11:24.922,0:11:28.443
they've got to understand [br]how it spreads and how to stop it.

0:11:28.443,0:11:32.519
And then we've got to be able to have [br]systems that can find every single case,

0:11:32.519,0:11:34.525
every contact of those cases,

0:11:34.525,0:11:38.682
and begin to track the transmission chains[br]so that you can stop transmission.

0:11:38.682,0:11:42.304
We have to have treatment centers,[br]specialized Ebola treatment centers,

0:11:42.304,0:11:44.817
where the workers can be protected

0:11:44.817,0:11:49.689
as they try to provide support[br]to the people who are infected,

0:11:49.689,0:11:52.134
so that they might survive the disease.

0:11:52.134,0:11:54.334
And then for those who do die,

0:11:54.334,0:12:00.192
we have to ensure there is a safe, but at[br]the same time dignified, burial process,

0:12:00.192,0:12:04.088
so that there is no spread [br]at that time as well.

0:12:04.798,0:12:09.299
So we do know how to stop Ebola, and these[br]strategies work, ladies and gentlemen.

0:12:09.299,0:12:13.458
The virus was stopped in Nigeria [br]by these four strategies

0:12:13.458,0:12:15.562
and the people implementing [br]them, obviously.

0:12:15.562,0:12:19.584
It was stopped in Senegal, where it had[br]spread, and also in the other countries

0:12:19.584,0:12:23.177
that were affected by this virus, [br]in this outbreak.

0:12:23.177,0:12:27.018
So there's no question that [br]these strategies actually work.

0:12:27.018,0:12:32.326
The big question, ladies and gentlemen,[br]was whether these strategies could work

0:12:32.326,0:12:36.600
on this scale, in this situation,[br]with so many countries affected

0:12:36.600,0:12:40.206
with the kind of exponential [br]growth that you saw.

0:12:40.206,0:12:44.757
That was the big question that we were [br]facing just two or three months ago.

0:12:44.757,0:12:48.801
Today we know the answer to that question.

0:12:48.801,0:12:51.779
And we know that answer [br]because of the extraordinary work

0:12:51.779,0:12:56.546
of an incredible group of NGOs,[br]of governments, of local leaders,

0:12:56.546,0:13:00.932
of U.N. agencies and many humanitarian [br]and other organizations

0:13:00.932,0:13:04.850
that came and joined the fight[br]to try and stop Ebola in West Africa.

0:13:04.850,0:13:08.293
But what had to be done there [br]was slightly different.

0:13:08.293,0:13:11.218
These countries took those strategies [br]I just showed you;

0:13:11.218,0:13:16.624
the community engagement,[br]the case finding, contact tracing, etc.,

0:13:16.624,0:13:18.548
and they turned them on their head.

0:13:18.548,0:13:21.481
There was so much disease,[br]they approached it differently.

0:13:21.481,0:13:26.912
What they decided to do was they would [br]first try and slow down this epidemic

0:13:26.912,0:13:31.899
by rapidly building as many beds as[br]possible in specialized treatment centers

0:13:31.899,0:13:37.203
so that they could prevent the disease[br]from spreading from those were infected.

0:13:37.203,0:13:39.652
They would rapidly build out[br]many, many burial teams

0:13:39.652,0:13:41.827
so that they could safely[br]deal with the dead,

0:13:41.827,0:13:44.394
and with that, they would try [br]and slow this outbreak

0:13:44.394,0:13:48.613
to see if it could actually then [br]be controlled using the classic approach

0:13:48.613,0:13:51.364
of case finding and contact tracing.

0:13:51.364,0:13:54.657
And when I went to West Africa[br]about three months ago,

0:13:54.657,0:13:57.669
when I was there[br]what I saw was extraordinary.

0:13:57.669,0:14:02.595
I saw presidents opening emergency[br]operation centers themselves against Ebola

0:14:02.595,0:14:06.363
so that they could personally coordinate [br]and oversee and champion

0:14:06.363,0:14:10.450
this surge of international support [br]to try and stop this disease.

0:14:10.450,0:14:14.001
We saw militaries from within [br]those countries and from far beyond

0:14:14.001,0:14:16.741
coming in to help build [br]Ebola treatment centers

0:14:16.741,0:14:19.991
that could be used to isolate [br]those who were sick.

0:14:24.417,0:14:29.574
to help train the communities so that[br]they could actually safely bury their dead

0:14:19.991,0:14:24.417
We saw the Red Cross movement working with[br]its partner agencies on the ground there

0:14:29.574,0:14:32.132
in a dignified manner themselves.

0:14:32.132,0:14:34.933
And we saw the U.N. agencies, [br]the World Food Program,

0:14:34.933,0:14:36.834
build a tremendous air bridge

0:14:36.834,0:14:40.736
that could get responders to every single[br]corner of these countries rapidly

0:14:40.736,0:14:44.089
to be able to implement the strategies[br]that we just talked about.

0:14:44.089,0:14:47.434
What we saw, ladies and gentlemen, [br]which was probably most impressive,

0:14:47.434,0:14:50.451
was this incredible work[br]by the governments,

0:14:50.451,0:14:53.468
by the leaders in these countries,[br]with the communities,

0:14:53.468,0:14:56.486
to try to ensure people [br]understood this disease,

0:14:56.486,0:15:02.169
understood the extraordinary things they [br]would have to do to try and stop Ebola.

0:15:02.169,0:15:04.462
And as a result, ladies and gentlemen,

0:15:04.462,0:15:08.905
we saw something that we did not know[br]only two or three months earlier,

0:15:08.905,0:15:11.179
whether or not it would be possible.

0:15:11.179,0:15:14.309
What we saw was [br]what you see now in this graph,

0:15:14.309,0:15:17.118
when we took stock on December 1.

0:15:17.118,0:15:20.560
What we saw was we could [br]bend that curve, so to speak,

0:15:20.560,0:15:22.934
change this exponential growth,

0:15:22.934,0:15:27.163
and bring some hope back[br]to the ability to control this outbreak.

0:15:27.163,0:15:31.217
And for this reason, ladies and gentlemen,[br]there's absolutely no question now

0:15:31.217,0:15:37.018
that we can catch up with this outbreak [br]in West Africa and we can beat Ebola.

0:15:37.785,0:15:40.958
The big question, though, [br]that many people are asking,

0:15:40.958,0:15:42.941
even when they saw this curve, they said,

0:15:42.941,0:15:45.845
"Well, hang on a minute --[br]that's great you can slow it down,

0:15:45.845,0:15:47.896
but can you actually[br]drive it down to zero?"

0:15:47.896,0:15:51.437
We already answered that question [br]back at the beginning of this talk,

0:15:51.437,0:15:55.590
when I spoke about Lofa County in Liberia.

0:15:55.590,0:15:59.016
We told you the story[br]how Lofa County got to a situation

0:15:59.016,0:16:01.829
where they have not seen[br]Ebola for eight weeks.

0:16:01.829,0:16:05.205
But there are similar stories from [br]the other countries as well.

0:16:05.205,0:16:07.451
From Gueckedou in Guinea,

0:16:07.451,0:16:11.959
the first area where the first case was[br]actually diagnosed.

0:16:11.959,0:16:15.373
We've seen very, very few cases[br]in the last couple of months,

0:16:15.373,0:16:19.800
and here in Kenema, in Sierra Leone, [br]another area in the epicenter,

0:16:19.800,0:16:23.061
we have not seen the virus[br]for more than a couple of weeks --

0:16:23.061,0:16:26.156
way too early to declare [br]victory, obviously,

0:16:26.156,0:16:27.931
but evidence, ladies and gentlemen,

0:16:27.931,0:16:31.556
not only can the response [br]catch up to the disease,

0:16:31.556,0:16:34.722
but this disease can be driven to zero.

0:16:34.722,0:16:38.878
The challenge now, of course, [br]is doing this on the scale needed

0:16:38.878,0:16:44.244
right across these three countries,[br]and that is a huge challenge.

0:16:44.244,0:16:48.949
Because when you've been at something[br]for this long, on this scale,

0:16:48.949,0:16:52.949
two other big threats [br]come in to join the virus.

0:16:52.949,0:16:56.052
The first of those is complacency,

0:16:56.052,0:16:59.475
the risk that as this [br]disease curve starts to bend,

0:16:59.475,0:17:02.739
the media look elsewhere, [br]the world looks elsewhere.

0:17:02.739,0:17:04.371
Complacency always a risk.

0:17:04.371,0:17:08.714
And the other risk, of course, is when[br]you've been working so hard for so long,

0:17:08.714,0:17:12.352
and slept so few hours [br]over the past months,

0:17:12.352,0:17:14.590
people are tired, people become fatigued,

0:17:14.590,0:17:18.660
and these new risks [br]start to creep into the response.

0:17:18.660,0:17:22.940
Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you today[br]I've just come back from West Africa.

0:17:22.940,0:17:26.640
The people of these countries,[br]the leaders of these countries,

0:17:26.640,0:17:28.136
they are not complacent.

0:17:28.136,0:17:31.879
They want to drive Ebola to zero [br]in their countries.

0:17:31.879,0:17:35.664
And these people, yes, they're tired, [br]but they are not fatigued.

0:17:35.664,0:17:37.869
They have an energy, they have a courage,

0:17:37.869,0:17:40.399
they have the strength [br]to get this finished.

0:17:40.399,0:17:43.153
What they need, ladies[br]and gentlemen, at this point,

0:17:43.153,0:17:46.781
is the unwavering support of the [br]international community,

0:17:46.781,0:17:48.189
to stand with them,

0:17:48.189,0:17:53.047
to bolster and bring even more support [br]at this time, to get the job finished.

0:17:53.047,0:17:58.082
Because finishing Ebola right now [br]means turning the tables on this virus,

0:17:58.082,0:17:59.817
and beginning to hunt it.

0:17:59.817,0:18:05.004
Remember, this virus, this whole crisis, [br]rather, started with one case,

0:18:05.004,0:18:07.703
and is going to finish with one case.

0:18:07.703,0:18:12.027
But it will only finish if those countries[br]have got enough epidemiologists,

0:18:12.027,0:18:16.644
enough health workers, enough logisticians[br]and enough other people working with them

0:18:16.644,0:18:20.126
to be able to find every one [br]of those cases, track their contacts

0:18:20.126,0:18:24.220
and make sure that this disease [br]stops once and for all.

0:18:24.220,0:18:27.557
Ladies and gentleman, Ebola can be beaten.

0:18:27.557,0:18:32.245
Now we need you to take this story out[br]to tell it to the people who will listen

0:18:32.245,0:18:35.457
and educate them [br]on what it means to beat Ebola,

0:18:35.457,0:18:39.189
and more importantly,[br]we need you to advocate with the people

0:18:39.189,0:18:42.743
who can help us bring the resources we[br]need to these countries,

0:18:42.743,0:18:44.517
to beat this disease.

0:18:44.517,0:18:48.699
There are a lot of people out there [br]who will survive and will thrive,

0:18:48.699,0:18:52.101
in part because of what you do [br]to help us beat Ebola.

0:18:52.101,0:18:53.587
Thank you.

0:18:53.587,0:18:57.474
(Applause)