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Ebola Spreads to a Congolese City; A U.S. Special Counsel Investigation Enters Its Second Year; A Positive Athlete Helps Train Guide Dogs for the Blind

Aired May 18, 2018 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: CNN 10 is not a breaking news show, but we`re breaking some right now. Fridays are awesome. We`re happy to have you

watching as we wrap this week in mid-May.

I`m Carl Azuz at the CNN Center. We will have two full weeks on air after this one and then our season ends with a new one starting on August 13th.

The Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa is where we start today`s show. What`s happening there is alarming medical officials around

the world. The latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has spread to a large city.

Previously, it had been limited to a rural area, but now, a case has been confirmed in the Congolese city of Mbandaka. It`s where more than 1.2

million people live. The DRC`s health minister says the outbreak has entered a new phase.

This is significant because Ebola could spread more quickly in a highly populated area and it`d be harder to control. As of last night, 44 cases

of the hemorrhagic fever had been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 23 people had died from it. On average, the Ebola virus kills

half the people it infects.

But while the World Health Organization says the fact that it`s spreading is concerning. It also says medical officials have better tools than ever

to fight Ebola. One of those tools is an experimental vaccine. It hasn`t been approved for use in the U.S. But the World Health Organization says

it has been shown to be safe in humans and highly effective against the Ebola virus.

So, it sent 4,000 doses, along with emergency workers and equipment to the DRC. International medical teams are also making sure health centers and

isolation wards there are ready to receive patients. Ebola mostly affects people, monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees. The virus was first identified

in this same part of Africa in 1976.

People can catch Ebola if they come into contact with body fluids or something contaminated by an infected person. They can also be exposed by

butchering infected animals.

But as CNN`s Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us, people can`t catch it through the air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It`s probably the question we got more than any other.

Is Ebola airborne?

The answer is no, it`s not. But today, I want to take just a couple of minutes and show you why not. I think you`re going to find this really

interesting.

A lot of viruses when they`re circulating through the air, if you breathe them in, part of the reason they actually make you sick is because they

stick to your airways. Just imagine this is your airway for example and this is one of those viruses. Put that in there, pour through, it`s

actually staying. Imagine that virus now staying in your lungs.

Ebola though doesn`t act that way. It`s not as sticky. So, if you were to breathe in an Ebola virus, it might look something like this, and put it

through your airway here, watch what happens. Goes right through. It doesn`t stick in your airway and that`s why it`s not airborne, doesn`t make

you sick.

There`s another reason Ebola isn`t airborne either and I want to show you this.

When you think about cold viruses or flu viruses, oftentimes, they act a bit like a powder. Think of that. This powder sort of in the air, people

can breathe it in, but they can also live on surfaces for days, even weeks, that`s in part what makes it airborne.

Instead with Ebola, it`s more like this baseball. You think about a baseball, you can put this in the air as well, but see what`s going to

happen pretty quickly, it`s just going to drop to the ground, and it`s not going to get anybody sick.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:

Which of these U.S. agencies was described in 1908 as a "regular force of special agents"?

FBI, CIA, Marine Corps, or Secret Service?

The answer here is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, aka the FBI.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: It`s been one year since the former director of the FBI, a man named Robert Mueller, was appointed to lead a special investigation concerning

the U.S. government. What Mueller and his team are looking into is alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and whether

members of Donald Trump`s political campaign inappropriately coordinated with Russia.

President Trump`s legal team says that after a year, Mueller`s special counsel has not given evidence of collusion with Russia or obstruction of

justice and that it`s time for the investigation to end. The president himself has called it a witch hunt and says he`s done nothing wrong.

But 22 other people and companies had been charged in the investigation. Many of those charges related to Russia`s alleged interference in the

election, and several people connected to the Trump campaign in some way have pleaded guilty to lying to investigators.

Still, no one outside the special counsel team seems to know what`s next. Complex investigations like this can take years to complete. So, even

though this one has been going on for a year, experts can only guess where it will end or how and when it will end.

From Washington, D.C., we`re taking you to Chino, California, for a report on a high school class president who`s also a pole vaulter, who`s also a

trainee for guide dogs. Yes, Briana Cabrera is busy.

But when you think about service animals, they have to be able to go out in the public, in the crowds and still keep their cool and focused on their

job. Briana helps train them to do this.

She`s an example of a positive athlete and you can nominate someone you know for this segment at CNN.com/PositiveAthlete.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANA CABRERA, POSITIVE ATHLETE: I do pole vault. If I have a bad day, or even a good day, he`s always there with me and I could always get some

cuddles. So, it`s nice.

My great uncle is legally blind and he has a dog. They told me that they always named puppy raisers. I take them to practice, to track meets, to

school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody is here that is so exciting to know.

CABRERA: Any place I go with my friends or family, he`s always with me. So, my first dog was Queen. He was really smart and he loved people. My

second dog was Beachwood. He was so laid back and calm and he didn`t want to work at first.

Flannel (ph) is my third dog. He is really energetic. And when we walk, he liked trots around when he`s happy.

It`s amazing, especially getting to watch some graduate. That is probably the best feeling you can have because you took over a year raising the dog

and getting to watch them help and change somebody`s life. It`s a great feeling.

This is kind of mandatory to go to all the practices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want the definition or the epitome of a student athlete, Bri would be that. She is one who follows her passions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have some fun, OK? We got this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also again goes out and does her thing on the track and puts in the hours to be successful there as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Most people probably don`t want to see spiders jumped, let alone train one to jump. But researchers at the University of Manchester did.

They thought this little arachnid named Kim to jump on command. And they say it`s the first time that`s ever been done.

So, how did they do it?

You might think through food, but spiders like Kim only eat about once a week. That would have taken a while. So, what they did was manually move

Kim from one platform to another over and over again until she was conditioned to make the jump herself.

They tried this method with three other spiders, but only Kim seemed to learn the trick. Still, they say that once she started, she reportedly

never missed and even made different jumps depending on the distance and height of the platforms.

So, what`s the point?

Scientists are hoping to take what they learn from Kim`s jumping and apply it to make really small robots that presumably could jump like her.

So, they are eager to jump right into the research. Maybe they saw something especially in Kim the moment they spidher. Little Miss Muffet

can sit on the tuffet, but Kim can jump on one, even if curds are in the way.

It`s like she`s got eight legs up on the competition and that must be why her video is crawling all over the World Wide Web.

I`m Carl Azuz, spinning puns like silk on CNN 10.

END