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In case you’ve missed it, the deadliest Ebola outbreak is spreading in Western Africa, taking at least 900 lives so far. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sending 50 infectious disease specialists to the region in order to help quell the outbreak and provide much-needed resources and expertise. As the outbreak worsens, confusion—and panic—has grown. To sort fact from doomsday fiction, we consulted current and former CDC members and infectious disease experts including Dr. Ron Behrens, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Amesh Adalija an infectious disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Here are answers to common burning questions. Where does the name “Ebola” come from? The virus is named after the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.That’s where the virus was discovered in 1976. If there’s no vaccine or cure, what are doctors doing to treat Ebola patients? For now, all doctors can do is treat the symptoms and provide supportive care like monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing while making sure the patients’ fluids are replenished. Sometimes patients are given antibiotics to treat other possible infections. The hope is to sustain the patient through the infection so their immune system can eventually clear the virus. This is harder to achieve in rural health systems in West Africa that are tasked with treating thousands of patients with insufficient resources. | 
