dr. fauci: it is serious from the kind of an outbreak that we are seeing in korea. this is not a virus that spreads readily at all in a community setting. although we are concerned about what's going on in south korea, the fact is that these are all hospital-related and hospital-connected infections. although you would like to see nothing like this happen, when you think about its broader implication, right now, it is really not a threat to the bod -- broad population, because it does not spread in an easy community-related way, for example, the way a typical influenza would spread, by contact that is relatively casual. these have all been related in one way or another to connection with someone who has been hospitalized or gone for medical care. katty: so, the chances of catching mers if you are in the general public seem to be fairly small, judging by what you are saying. how serious is it if you do catch it? dr. fauci: the mortality of this particular virus is considerable. if you look at th

dr. fauci: the original outbreak in south korea occurred from a 68-year-old man who had traveled to a few countries in the middle east, came to south korea, did not realize nor did his physicians realize that he had mers. he went from one doctor to another and one hospital and one clinic to another and unfortunately, they were not prepared for the isolation while he was in the health facilities. he spread the infections to other people who then spread it to other patients and even health care providers. i'm -- what i mean that that is what amy when i say that it was in the health care providers. he did not go out into the community and spread it within the community, what it was within a health care setting. so far, which is a very large amount, considering. pimm: dr. fauci, is this at all similar to the sars outbreak? same broadit is the category of viruses, it is called the coronavirus. as you may recall several years ago, when sars emanated from china to hong kong and then went out to other

dr. fauci says even though people were exposed to the patient, the risk of someone developing this form of tb is very low, he says. doctors at n.i.h. say it's too early, though, to know when combination of drug is going to be effective. the cdc says people with active tb are not supposed to fly. investigators are trying to determine if the patient came to the united states just to be treated. >> mike, thank you. >>> 6:08. a civilian board which oversees the -- [ inaudible ] -- violated department policy. >> manhunt continues for to convicted killers who used power tools to break out a maximum security prison in new york. >> those stories are coming up but first here's allison with a look -- allyson with a look at today's weather. >> 6 # degrees. we're going to -- 68 degrees. we're going to warm up fast. temperatures headed to the upper 80s. a lot of sunshine and not too humid and that's key. as we head into the next couple of days, our humidity increases and our temperatures soar. we'll get to

dr. anthony fauci is director of the national institutes of health. is it known for how long she had t.b. before coming to the united states? >> it's not just a matter of months. it's likely been a few years that she's had t.b. she was treated in multiple places and it became clear when they examined the bacteria, that despite fact that she had been and was being treated that in fact the microbe was resistant. >> reporter: one problem-- she didn't seek treatment until seven weeks after arriving in the u.s. once she landed in chicago she traveled to missouri and tennessee before returning to illinois for evaluation. since t.b. is spread through the air, federal health officials are contacting fellow passengers from her flight. how likely do you think it is that anybody in the united states or on the airplane who was exposed to this patient will come down with t.b.? >> the risk is low. certainly not zero, but low. and the risk is increased by the the duration of the flight and by the proximity to the person in the plane. >> reporter: there are about 200

we worked with dr. fauci and dr. lane's team at the nih to help them with a parallel study that they were doing at the same time with the same vaccine candidate. a and we jointly published those results in the last couple of months. but it didn't stop at the u.s. government. we were working with the world health organization because there were other groups also doing these small safety trials. and together we were able to take the blood samples send them to usam. >>> rid and then usamrid were able to make the data to make informed decisions about what vook seen vaccine dose needed to be used in west africa and you've probably seen that those trials are ongoing. so as colonel coleman mentioned, it's not just d.o.d. or whole of u.s. government, it's an international effort. in our vaccine trials that we were doing here in the u.s., they were also being done overseas and in fact the vaccine trial we did at the rare this past year, it wasn't the first time we had done an ebola vaccine trial. building on the military hiv

dr. anthony fauci, of the national institutes of health. >> you don't proactively screen of the national institutes of health. >> you don't proactively screen somebody for tuberculosis. >> reporter: this form of tuberculosis is fairly rare in the united states, just three to four cases a year. and the fatality rate, about 35%. but worldwide the fatality rate is about 70%. david? >> that's the stunning number. david, thanks. around the world, the fatality rate, 70%. you pointed that out this morning on "gma." so, that's why there's a lot of concern here with this case. >> that's right. this can be deadly. but, thankfully, it's not as contagious as things like the flu. but they're going to work to track down every one of the close contacts. >> the rows in front of that passenger and the rows behind her on that plane. in the meantime, stick with us, dr. besser, because there's another major medical headline tonight. a new cholesterol drug, an fda advisory panel recommending the drug be approved. 73 million americans have high ldl, the so-called bad cholesterol. this new drug found to lower

we worked with dr. fauci and dr. lane's team at the nih at the same time with the same vaccine candidate. and we jointly published those results in the last couple of months. but it didn't stop with the u.s. government. we were also working with the world health organization because there were other groups that were also doing these small safety trials. and together we were able to take all the blood samples, send them to usamriid, and they were able to generate the data that was required to make informed decisions what about vaccine dose needed to be use inside west africa. and you've probably seen the lay press, those trials are ongoing right now. so as colonel coleman mentioned, it's not just dod, it's not just whole of u.s. government, it's an international effort. and our vaccine trials that we were doing here in the u.s. were also being done overseas. and, in fact, the vaccine trial we did at the the r.a.r.e. this past year, it wasn't the first time we had done an ebola vaccine trial. building on military hiv r

dr. anthony fauci, has intense, intimate understanding of the ravages of ebola. >> at least in the most recent that we took care of, that's about as sick as you can get without dying. >> reporter: on march 14, 2015, he suited up to treat a u.s. health care worker who became infected in sierra leone, and was airlifted to the n.i.h. hospital outside washington where he received the highest level of intensive care possible, it kept him alive while his body mounted its own defense. >> reporter: it was touch and go for a week, but he survived. >> all of the people who have recovered from ebola, even those who have been very ill it was their immune system that ultimately suppressed and eliminated the virus. >> reporter: this is why fauci and others are optimistic they have a found a way to stop ebola its tracks. the human body can create the antibodies to fight off ebola, but usually not fast enough. an effective vaccine creates an army of ebola antibodies that can stop the virus before it stampedes through the body. but here is the ironic rub: >> if we are successful in controlling ebola, we won't

dr. anthony fauci is the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases at nih joiningbethesda maryland. how concerned should we be about the incident at the u.s. air base? >> i don't think we need to be overly concerned, though we need to be vigilant wolf because this is a virus that is known to be able to spread inefficiently from one person to another upon very close contact. it is not the kind of virus that readily spreads in the community. so though, obviously, you want to take seriously the infections we're seeing right now, it is not the kind of virus that would be concern like influenza which spreads very widely within the community even when you don't have particularly close contact. and that's what we've seen in virtually all of the cases that have now been reported to korea, from korea which unfortunately is the largest outbreak that we've seen outside of the arabian peninsula. you want to take it seriously, but i don't think it should be of overly concern to us right now. >> correct me if i'm wrong, this is a relatively new disease, only learning about it no