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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Spanish Nurse's Assistant, 1st To Contract Ebola Outside Of Africa; Obama: Ebola "A Top National Security Priority"; Partner of Ebola Patient Speaks Out; Feds: Arrested Teen Wanted to Fight For ISIS; 4-Year-Old Enterovirus Victim Died In His Sleep; Missing UVA Student: New Details on Suspect

Aired October 06, 2014 - 21:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Hey, thanks for joining us for the extended edition of 360. We begin tonight with the Ebola crisis. If there wherever any doubt, that this is the world's problem and not just West Africa's problem, those doubts should be put to rest. For the first time, someone has contracted the virus outside of Africa. A nurse's assistant in Spain who had helped threat two Ebola patients who returned to Spain with the virus and they have since died.

Here in the United States, President Obama today, said the odds of an outbreak are extremely low but called Ebola a top national security priority. There are new developments tonight for the Ebola patients in Texas and now Nebraska. Our freelance cameraman arrived for treatment today. In Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan is in critical condition. Several sources tell us he's been treated with an experimental drug, not ZMapp, the drug that helped two American missionaries because there's no more of that but another drug.

I asked CDC Director Thomas Frieden if that's true. Here's is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: The actual treatment of the patient, that's really up to the patient, the patient's family and the hospitals released. I will say that we know that the medicines that have been used before have not been used here. There are other medicines like Vaniprevir (ph) that have been shown some promise in a test tube, whether they would help or not. We don't know. But certainly, we would want everything possible done and to try to ensure his recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, whatever is being done to help Duncan, the mother of one of his children says it's not enough.

She's the woman that Duncan traveled from Liberia to stay with. He stayed with her when he became ill. And now she, her son, and two nephews are in quarantine.

We're identifying her only as Louise. Here's more of the conversation I had with her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: When was the last time you had talked to him?

LOUISE, PARTNER OF THOMAS ERIC DUNCAN: Two days ago. Two days ago and they put a tube in his mouth. He could hardly speak.

So I told him, "OK, I will call you back later."

And I have not heard from him anymore.

COOPER: You must be very worried.

LOUISE: I am worried. I am sad.

You don't know how frustrated I am. I'm just asking God and asking the American government the same medicine they've giving to people that came from Liberia, the Ebola people that came -- the people with Ebola that came in Atlanta. And please help him save his life. He is too young to die.

COOPER: You're saying you want Thomas to receive the same treatment that the two American missionaries received who were working in Liberia and were flown back here.

They received the serum ZMapp, but the government says that there is no -- they don't have any more of this serum right now, that it needs to be made, and that is going to take several months.

LOUISE: But they just let another Ebola case, the one that came from Liberia, I think two days ago. What are they giving him that they can't give Thomas?

COOPER: You're talking about the NBC cameraman.

But I'm not sure if he's being given that ZMapp. My understanding is, according to the government, there's no more of that serum left.

LOUISE: Yes, but then they do everything in their power to save his life. They want to give it to the camera guy, let them give it to him, too, so he can be saved. We just want him to live.

COOPER: Do you believe he's not getting the same kind of treatment he would get as if he's American?

LOUISE: I don't believe so because he went to the hospital last Sunday, last Sunday, and they got poor communication with us.

He put my name down there on the paper, whether we're married or not married. I received him here. He was in my house. So why don't they communicate with me? Why don't they tell me what they're giving him? Why don't they tell me what they're doing to him?

COOPER: There are some people who believe maybe he knew he had been in contact with Ebola, and that's why he came to the United States. Why do you think he came to the United States?

LOUISE: My son gave him -- gave me a paper to put in for Thomas. My son was graduating and he wanted his dad to come.

And he sent him an invitation. And he got his visa July 25. So he was not diagnosed with Ebola. That's why he wanted to come. He wanted to come for his son's graduation. And his interview was delayed. And after that, they gave him -- they grant him the visa to come. It was not for Ebola. People just say lies.

COOPER: So when he got the visa in the end of July, I think you said July 25th, why didn't he -- why did he not come then? Why did he wait until September?

LOUISE: Because we don't have plane -- his plane ticket ready. We don't have money to purchase his plane ticket. That's why.

COOPER: I see.

LOUISE: That's the God's truth.

COOPER: When you hear people say these things about Thomas, that people suspect he came here in order -- that maybe he knew he might be sick and wanted to be in a place where he could go to an American hospital, when you hear that, what do you think?

LOUISE: People just say things that they want to say.

He never knew that he had that sickness when he had his visa. I just want the public to know that everything they're putting on Facebook and saying things, calling the media and talking all kinds of stuff, they need to shut up and listen to their own person. Pay attention to themselves. And leave my family and I alone.

COOPER: If somebody in the White House is listening to this, what would you want them to know, or in the CDC?

LOUISE: I would want them to know to please, please, please, please help me save his life.

And let him save -- let him be saved. Let him help -- let him help -- talk to the doctors. They will find means to get medicine to cure him. He is so young and he came to see his children. Would you please help to save his life?

COOPER: Louise, thank you very much for talking to us. Stay strong.

LOUISE: Thank you too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: That's Louise, who is still in quarantine. And we've heard from several sources that Thomas Duncan is being treated with an experimental drug, as I said, not the same experimental drug that was given to the two American missionaries who were successfully treated in Atlanta. That drugs you just heard with my conversation with Louise, it's called ZMapp.

And doctors describe its effect on Kent Brantly as miraculous. Nancy Writebol also got it and improved significantly. So, question is why is it Thomas Duncan getting and that's Louise was asking. Short answer is you head is there isn't any left but it's more complicated than that making more takes a lot of time and a lot of money. Randi Kaye has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is no federally approved treatment and no vaccine for Ebola. So the world is pinning its hopes on a drug cocktail called ZMapp. ZMapp had only been tested successfully on monkeys before being used to save the lives of two American missionaries this summer. The experimental treatment is the result of a collaboration between San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical and two other companies.

Here's how ZMapp is made. First, the genetically engineered virus is injected into a tobacco plant. The plant then produces antibodies. Unlike earlier attempts in mice, the tobacco plant can produce enough antibodies for dozens of doses. The ZMapp given to the missionaries in August was apparently made from tobacco leaves at a facility in Kentucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the plant starts turning yellow because it's going to die from the viral infection, once you see that the plant there has got to that point, the guys in Kentucky harvest the leaf material.

KAYE: Cloned humanized antibodies are separated from the plant. Purified and turned into doses. In the patient, those antibodies attached themselves to Ebola's harmful cells and destroy the virus.

Trouble is the whole process takes time as long, as six months per dose.

And there's another reason the supply of ZMapp has already run dry, lack of funding for government agencies focused on biodefense. Last year, the CDC lost $13 million in biodefense budget cuts and the budget for the national institute of health was reduced by 5 percent.

ANTHONY STEPHEN FAUCI, IMMUNOLOGIST: They're right now manufacturing additional lots. It probably won't be ready now until maybe a month and a half to two months.

KAYE: Help is on the way now. Just this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided nearly $25 million in funding to ZMapp's manufacturer. But for those who need it now, there is fear it will be too little too late.

Randi Kaye, CNN New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: With me again, a Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Irwin Redlener, Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness in Columbia University and David Quammen, author of Ebola, The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus.

Dr. Redlener, it's fascinating, you and I were talking about before the break, and Randi alludes to it. The public spending for disaster preparedness for an outbreak like this has dropped dramatically. I mean, after 9/11 it skyrocketed and now, it (inaudible) gone gradually down, down, down, down and nobody will pays attention.

IRWIN REDLENER, PEDIATRICIAN AND PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIVIST: Well, it's been under the radar and people think we can get away on the cheap for preparing the country for this kind of event. In some ways we're lucky that it was only Ebola and not an Avian Flu or SARS or something like that which would have been an absolute catastrophe for the country.

So what's happen though, sort of -- without anybody really seeing, the low-hanging fruit here is been to cut back on disaster preparedness funding. So that the money that we had in 2003 and 2004 about $500 million a year for hospital preparedness has now dropped to $215 million a year, a disastrous cut in cost and the expenses that we actually need to have to make our hospitals safe.

COOPER: And Sanjay, nobody notices this kind of cut until there's a situation like this or God forbid something even worst in the airborne virus.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's absolutely right. I mean, hospitals sort of -- they want to work near full capacity, you know, we're talking about having a lot of surge capacity in case there's a lot more patients and that's just not the way the system is setup right now. And to Dr. Redlener's point, not just the United States, if you look at West Africa and how many cuts have occurred at the World Health Organization level.

There have been significant cuts, many countries that have made commitments to continuing to fund this sort of disaster preparedness at the world health level that did not make good on those commitments. So, they have in effect been cut as well. It affects the whole world.

COOPER: And David, I mean, it's interesting, you know, all of these officials are saying, "Well, look, we have learned from this. We're learning what works. We're learning how to do things better", but at the bottom line, if their budgets have been drastically reduced, they just don't have the capabilities, I mean again, if it's not this it's going to be something else down the road. I mean, we already know there's growing antibiotic resistance. We already know that there's a lot of other viruses out there which could easily make a leap over here.

DAVID QUAMMEN, AUTHOR, "EBOLA": That's right. And we've heard from some good reporting recently that the WHO has had its budget drastically cut too. And then, there's -- I think there's a jurisdictional question too Anderson. In this -- amid all these confusion and fear in Dallas, people are asking and I'm wondering too, who is in charge? Is it the county Health & Human Services Department, Dallas County? Is it the State Health Department, is it CDC?

I think that one of the things we need to learn and probably will learn from this outbreak is that those jurisdictional issues maybe need to be sorted out. Ebola is a Biosafety Level 4 agent, a BSL-4, the most dangerous and the most untreatable of all agents. Maybe there should be a discussion about when a BSL-4 agent breaks out, possibly the jurisdictional responsibilities should be categorically different.

COOPER: Dr. Redlener, what about that

REDLENER: Well, and to David's point, it's not just -- by the way the hospitals are being shortchanged on preparedness. And so, also all the public health agencies and local and state in particular, so the people had actually have to go in there and prevent the diseases and do the contact tracing and everything. And also, prepare for new events that might happen in the future. Those funds have also been drastically cut. So, we've been shortchanged on the public health side as well as the health and hospital side.

And we've been asking for this kind of trouble that we're seeing right now. And, we need to get this -- we need to fix this and we need to have -- this is really a job for the Congress, to the administration to restore that funding, it's vitally needed for the long-term security at the county.

COOPER: But, Dr. Redlener, I mean this is exactly the kind of thing that until there's some sort of massive disaster then -- and, you know, God forbid when that happens, everyone is going to screaming, "How could this -- how can our public health system is this way, what, you know, why didn't anyone notice these budget cuts?" I mean, the fact that this -- has just sort of been allowed to every year, just kind of drip, drip, drip, lower and lower and lower is really alarming.

REDLENER: It's very alarming and -- however we still have a chance to fix this. So, it's not that immutable and...

COOPER: And is it just course (ph) of money or it is also the jurisdictional thing...

REDLENER: Well, it's money and there's also jurisdictional things, there's a, you know, developing collaborations among various hospitals, a whole series of things that need to be done. But, the bottom line is that, they will need the money to do this and they certainly need the money in the health department. We've lost 50,000 public health jobs in the last five years, 50,000. These are people that could have been in the Dallas Health Department, helping to work, helping to make sure that the families was taking care of, et cetera. That 50,000 puts us at bare bones for our ability to function on the public health level.

COOPER: And Sanjay, when we see it in a very, you know, microscopic way when there's nobody to clean Louise's apartment...

GUPTA: Yeah. COOPER: ... and the sheets are on the bed, and the towel is there endangering her and the other people for those days that there are -- they're potentially living with this active virus, if there were more people that could been take up quicker.

GUPTA: Yeah, I think so, I mean that's a -- one of those things where -- I think given that this was the first case -- this was something that was actually on the list, the idea of how to dispose off waste. It was something they were actually working toward before Mr. Duncan arrived in the United States to figure out how this should be handled at the local level. But you're right, I mean, it probably could have been done faster, some of these plans could have put into place already. Some of that just slowed down because of this budget cuts, you know, when you talk to the folks at the CDC and you talk Dr. Frieden (ph) as well.

The big issues, you know, where is the patient going to be treated, talking about vaccine trials and things like that. Obviously, very high on the list, what to do with the waste, lower down on the list, and they probably wish they could have gotten to all those details before Mr. Duncan arrived.

COOPER: It's interesting that Sanjay, I mean, yeah I don't know if you have, you know, I've taken Chem-Bio welfare training and, you know, been worn tie back (ph) suit and I have one on my office in case there's biological attack so I can continue to report on the midst of one, but as much as you think about it theoretically until it actually happens, I mean I've no idea if I mean we're going to remember how to put my tight back (ph) suit and go out, you know, to a gas cloud.

GUPTA: You know, your underlying a very important point and that is that, you know, this is what the CDC folks have been talking about for sometime, they're saying look, "We've been educating people on this, we've been putting out memos, we've been talking to local hospitals", when I was there visiting them a few months ago, they were doing a big all call with E.R.s and primary care docs all over the country.

And then, still there's basic questions that still get asked. And that's because, like you say until it actually happens people really aren't paying that close of attention whether you're suit in our office or all the thing that could happen with Mr. Duncan after he arrive he Dallas.

COOPER: I'm going to go check out my suit and see if it's -- there are any holes in there and if everything still works.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta thanks very much, Dr. Irwin Redlener great to have you and David Quammen as well.

Quick reminder, make sure you set your DVRs. You watch 360 whenever you want.

Coming up, Thomas Duncan's hometown in Liberia ravaged by Ebola, we have a live report on how the disease spread after family member of a pregnant women say Duncan tried to help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: For the breaking news tonight, for the first time in this Ebola Outbreak a person has contracted a virus outside Africa. And nurse's assistant in Spain has been diagnosed with Ebola after helping to treat two Spanish aid workers who have since died. Meanwhile Thomas Duncan is in critical condition in Dallas, he was visiting as you know from Liberia when he was diagnosed with Ebola.

Tonight, we're learning more about how the disease is ravaging his hometown. CNN's Nima Elbagir, went there. Neighbors say that Duncan was among a group of people who helped a pregnant woman who collapsed, since then at least nine other people who help her that day have died or have becomes sick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nine-year-old Mercy (ph) is being looked after by her 17-year-old brother Harris (ph). Their mother also was among the first at Williams' (ph) side. Days later, she herself was rushed to the hospital. Mercy doesn't know this yet but after we leave, one of the neighbors is going to take her side and explain that her mother is never coming back home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Nima Elbagir joins me now live from Liberia. So you visited the home where Thomas Duncan was allegedly renting a room, spokes to some of his neighbors. What did you find there?

ELBAGIR: Well, we found the community really, really Anderson. The whole compound has been quarantined. The room Duncan -- that we were told Duncan was renting. It is locked up exactly as he left. That even the Ebola task force volunteers are refusing to go in there, they're just too afraid. Authorities tell us that they have pinpointed over 100 people including Duncan that they believe came into contact with Marceline Williams (ph) and they believe are now under -- they are now in great risk, Anderson?

COOPER: Now, there have been conflicting reports about how Mr. Duncan contracted Ebola. Some reports say he helped a pregnant woman who was suffering from -- later died from Ebola, that it was his sister-in- law. His nephew gave a different account earlier this evening, I do want to play a little of what he said to Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPHUS WEEKS, ERIC DUNCAN'S NEPHEW: I asked him, "If you have any contact with anyone that, you know, had Ebola or do you know where you got it?" He said, "No, I don't know where I got it. It could have been a handle. I was hanging out with a bunch of people before I left." So, he didn't know where he got it but he said -- because I asked him about the rumors he said, he didn't know where he got it and the answer in that is describing in the newspapers and on the media that he didn't touch that woman. He wasn't even living in that area when happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So what are you hearing from the people there? What did they told you that's actually happened?

ELBAGIR: When we spoke to Marceline's sister and she said, she was with Duncan when Marceline collapsed and they both rushed to her side amongst, a whole group of neighbors and friends and family, mainly because they didn't believe she had Ebola. This was a pregnant teenager who just fell in front of their very eye. They thought these are complications due to pregnancy. Even after she died, the positive test result hadn't come back in time to catch Thomas Eric Duncan before he got on that plane to the state.

So it's absolutely conceivable that when he fills in that form and got on the plane that he genuinely didn't believe that he had been in contact with someone who had Ebola. I'm not really has exacerbated the problem here, because so many other people came to Marceline William's aid. Also not believing that she had Ebola and they just did what you and I would do when someone collapses in front of us and now, they seem to pay an extraordinarily high price for that.

COOPER: Wait a minute. So this is actually very important point, and I just want to reiterate and if you can just repeat it, the name of this woman who died and what relation she is to Thomas Duncan, if you can explain that at all and also you said that the positive test result for her did not come back until Thomas Duncan had already left for the United States?

ELBAGIR: Yes. She had passed away before he's flown away but because of just, you know, the absolute burdening of the health care system here, it isn't as quick as it needs to be. Marceline Williams, when you go into the compound, it's that quite close together. So, her family owns that compound and her room was facing Thomas Eric Duncan's room. And it was her sister who told us she was there. She saw her collapsed and she and Duncan and others rushed to her aid and it was the story we had the Ebola task force, coordinates, and we had it form other neighbors and they have no reason to lie.

They themselves to there honesty have been quarantine for 21 days and it really -- we've been speaking lot about the protocol and the screenings that people want to bring into effect into the U.S. Well, that's all well and good but what can you do when people don't know they've been exposed. These really are the huge gaps in the system, Anderson.

COOPER: Do we know -- have other people and you might have said, there's -- other people who helped out that woman. Have any of them become positive with Ebola?

ELBAGIR: Yes. Sadly, the little girl in the piece you played just before we started speaking. Her mother also was with Duncan when they went to help Marceline Williams. She died quite recently. Marceline William's parents who Duncan was in daily interaction with because they were his landlords, both of them are in an Ebola treatment unit. Her half-brother died, her best friend who helped prepared the body for burial. I mean, this is just ricochet through that community. It is almost an outbreak within the larger outbreak at this point Anderson.

COOPER: And so was she hospitalized and died in the hospital or did she -- you said, they were preparing her body. So, could she not get into a hospital and she died at home and they actually buried her body?

ELBAGIR: Well, Duncan and the others took her to a treatment as they're trying and find out whether the baby could be saved or what was happening to her. When they go to the center, there was just no room for her. This wasn't an Ebola treatment, we should stress. This was just a normal health care clinic. They came back and she died at home. She deteriorated rapidly but -- it didn't seem from these descriptions we were given that she was presenting those symptoms that people associate with Ebola.

No one said she was bleeding from her eyes and I think that was -- what was really dangerous here is it just happened so, so quickly, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Nima Elbagir, excellent reporting. Thank you so much.

And again, this is the value of front-line reporting and actually going to the sources, talking to the people who were there. And again, the crucial information I think on that and very interesting is that according to the people in that community and according to the workers that that health worker that Nima has talked to, Thomas Eric Duncan did not know the positive test result that that woman have had, perhaps, he suspected it but according to her, he did not know if she tested positive for Ebola before he come in that airplane.

You can find out more on the story and others are cnn.com.

Just ahead, new details tonight about the 19-year-old man arrested at O'Hare International Airport. Authorities say he was on his way to Turkey to join up with ISIS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Breaking news on the war against ISIS, a teenager from the Chicago Suburbs is facing a serious terror-related charge tonight. 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan was arrested at O'Hare International Airport over the weekend. He's facing one account of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The investigator say they have evidence of him wanted to join ISIS, they say he was on his way to Turkey when he was apprehended.

Pamela Brown joined me now with the latest. What do you know about this guy?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we're learning the FBI arrested 19-year-old Mohammed come this past Saturday at Chicago O'Hare airport just before he boarded a flight to Vienna and now to Turkey. Authority say he was traveling overseas to join ISIS. And according to the criminal complains, authority discovered several notebooks at Suburban Chicago homeland allegedly detailing his travel plan, a $4,000 ticket to Istanbul, a cash for a hotel, and people he should contact once in Turkey.

And also Anderson, they found several drawings of the ISIS flag including one with an armed fighter with the world come to Jihad. And there was also a letter that authorities alleged -- apparently found that Khan had allegedly brought to his parent in which he asked that they please make sure not to tell the authorities about his plan to "migraine to the Islamic State" Anderson.

COOPER: Do you know how authorities tracked him or -- and is it known how he got $4,000 for a flight?

PAMELA: Well, that's still the big question, of course authorities are going to want to follow the money trail and they're not saying how we was able to get that money. As far he was tracked, authorities have a number of ways of tracking these individuals. We know that he's one about a dozen American who allegedly wanted to travel to Syria to fight.

And one of the ways, these individuals come into authorities radar is just through these online forums. We know that he was involved in some activity online. So it could be that authorities were aware of with him that way. Also there are human sources that tipped him off and then foreign government will sometimes also alert U.S. authorities Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Pamela. Thanks very much.

Now every gain that ISIS makes in Iraq and Syria becomes recruitment material for the extremist group.

Tonight, ISIS disclosure to capturing Qabbani a key city in Syria near the border of Turkey, ISIS fighters are also making gains in Iraq where the U.S. military began using army apache gunship attack helicopter against ISIS targets which a lot people sounds, a lot like combat. Earlier I spoke Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby about all of this, including the arrest of Mohammed Hamzah Khan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Admiral Kirby, first of all the Chicago area teen who's know been arrested for attempting to go overseas to support ISIS, how concerned are you from the military standpoint that there are other like him inside the U.S.?

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We're very concerned, it is something that Secretary Hagel's talked about many, many times about this foreign fighter threat, this idea that people could go get radicalized either here or over there. And then learn skills, terrorist capabilities and bring him back home.

In fact, this not just something that Secretary Hagel or those in United States government is concerned about. It's something that foreign governments all over the world are worried about, particularly in Europe. So it remains a real threat, and when we talk about the immediacy of the threat that ISIS poses, that's a big component of it. COOPER: The fact that we're now seeing U.S. Apache attack helicopters engage ISIS in Iraq, that's -- I mean that's significant. It's not combat group -- it combat boots on the ground so to speak, but certainly U.S. military personnel flying at a much lower altitude, at a much greater risk. The forces operating those helicopters they are directly engaging in combat, correct?

KIRBY: Absolutely, they are engaging combat just does as the fighter aircraft and bomber aircraft that are manned are also engaged in combat. There's no doubt about that. And we've said, we're at war with ISIS -- we're at war with al-Qaeda. The Apache helicopters that we're talking about though, they are largely doing support missions for Iraqis security forces in Anbar province, and you guys have tracked us you've been reporting on the developments in, around Fallujah, it was in that area that the helicopters have been most useful.

COOPER: But if -- I mean they put on those helicopters goes down, who goes to rescue the crew?

KIRBY: Well, we have procedures in place and assets in place, I can't go on into too much detail on this Anderson, but rest assure that -- and this would have been the same for any of our fighter aircraft too. We have procedures in place, we have resources in place...

COOPER: For American personnel though, it's not you're not relying on Iraqi forces.

KIRBY: That is correct.

COOPER: There's obviously major concern that ISIS could soon capture if it has an already this Northern Syrian City Qabbani which is near the Turkish border. Despite, airstrikes by the U.S. and allies over the weekend, what does that say about the effectiveness of airstrikes themselves?

KIRBY: Well, I think it's important when we talk about airstrikes particularly in airstrikes in Syria that we talk about the nature and the function, the purpose of these strikes. And then, Syria is really going after this group's ability to sustain itself and resources itself. Now, yes, we have been doing what we call dynamic targeting in Syria which is where we go after mobile targets trucks, vehicles, checkpoints that kind of think. But largely, what we're trying to do is degrade their capability to sustain themselves.

It also reinforces what we've been saying in the Pentagon for a while now which is that airstrikes alone are not going to be enough, neither is military power alone going to be enough to completely eliminate the threat that ISIS poses. But what you got a have is good governance on both sides of the border. You got to have good partners on the ground, willing partners, capable partners. That's why we're working so hard to get this training mission up and going for a moderate opposition, so that they can go back into Syria and eliminate ISIL is a threat there.

COOPER: But, you're still talking 12 to 18 months for... KIRBY: That's right.

COOPER: ... training Syrian forces, as many as 5,000. Does that mean that, it's very possible we're going to see the United States is going to see and coalition is going to see more ISIS advances throughout Syria because -- I mean is there not affective forces on the ground right now they can actually stand up to them?

KIRBY: Well, a couple of things. The training program is meant to go more than 5,000, excuse me troops in the first year, we expect that the number will go up and that will probably have to do more, more training and advance those numbers chairman -- the join chief said that 12,000 to 15,000 trained moderate opposition is probably the right number to really make an impact on ISIL.

It does mean that we can expect to ISIL continue to try to make advances and gain territory. We've been very honest about the threat that they still pose and the fact that they're still very capable. The airstrikes are not meant to completely eliminate the threat, there's no way you can do that from the air.

But we are trying to slow them down, try to remove their capabilities to finance and sustain themselves, but absolutely, we all need to expect and I think be prepared that the threat that they pose, the territory they grab, the infrastructure they try to cease will continued.

COOPER: In Iraq, do you Baghdad itself could fall?

KIRBY: Baghdad is very well defended Anderson, the ISF, the Iraqi security forces in and around the capital have done a good job, they stiffen their defenses, they've been able to keep the capital largely safe, there's been some sporadic attacks nearby. We've been helping a little bit from the air. We believe that the Iraqi security forces, they understand the threat to the capital city and that they're prepared to defend it.

COOPER: All right. Admiral Kirby thanks for your time.

KIRBY: My pleasure. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: All right. Just had tonight, a four-year-old New Jersey boy died in the sleep in his own bed. He's the first confirm fatality in the enterovirus outbreaks sweeping the U.S. He's parents say there were no signs he even had the virus. What you need to know, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: There's new concern tonight about a nasty strain of common respiratory virus that's hitting children especially hard this year, Enterovirus D68.

A four-year-old New Jersey boy is the first confirmed fatality. Authorities say that Eli Waller was killed by the virus even though he reportedly had no symptoms at all. No troubled breathing, no cough, no fever.

The virus has sickened hundreds of kids across the country and some of them ended up on ventilators and ICU units. It also been linked to paralysis in some kids. And now the death of Eli Waller has raised a new and frankly a terrifying prospect. What if the virus can kill with no warning?

Susan Candiotti reports.

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SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: His parents call Eli Waller, the youngest in a set of triplets little buggy (ph) comparing him to a shy puppy who love to make people happy.

JEFF PLUNKETT, HAMILTON TOWNSHIP N.J. HEALTH CENTER: He always told us, "Dad, do I make you proud?" And the father would always say, "Yes, you do." He just was -- he is precious.

CANDIOTTI: Apparently without warning, four-year-old Eli went to bed 12 days ago and never woke up.

A victim, the CDC says of the enterovirus.

Did he have any underlying conditions that might have caused this?

PLUNKETT: None whatsoever. It was asymptomatic, when he was to put to bed that night.

CANDIOTTI: And that's what makes Eli's death so mysterious. There is no explanation for how he got sick. None.

And that's stunning.

PLUNKETT: It's hard to believe if you think about but it is the nature of that virus.

CANDIOTTI: While he usually attended Pre-K with his sisters in Hamilton Township New Jersey, Eli's mom kept him home that day because of a slight case of pink eye.

PLUNKETT: He went to sleep and when she went to wake him up in the morning he had past.

CANDIOTTI: That quickly.

PLUNKETT: That quickly.

CANDIOTTI: His sisters are not sick. Of nearly 600 confirmed the cases in 43 states, the CDC says Eli's death appears to be the only one of four fatalities blamed entirely on the enterovirus.

Is there anything that Eli's parents could have done, could have foreseen to prevent this?

PLUNKETT: Absolutely none. CANDIOTTI: Before the CDC confirmed Eli died of the enterovirus, as a precaution, the school scrub down the Pre-K classroom where the children have other activities.

MAYOR KELLY YAEDE, HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY: The students are having to do a lot more hand washing then they're used to in the day and I command and say do this hand wash cha cha (ph).

CANDIOTTI: Eli's school honoring him with blue ribbons, and his name on a sign for everyone to see.

KELLY: When you see photos of little Eli, his personality left of the page.

CANDIOTTI: His parents setting up a foundation to support special education offering a statement reading in part, "He was a beautiful mix of eagerness and hesitancy, need and striving, caution and surprise, all of which were grounded in a pure, unconditional love."

From a four-year-old who love soccer dancing and making his family proud.

Susan Candiotti, CNN Hamilton Township, New Jersey.

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COOPER: Still hard to believe. Understandably, many parents across the country extremely worried about this virus.

Joins us again, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So, I mean he wasn't exhibiting symptoms when he went to bed, what happened? How's that happened?

GUPTA: Well, you know, and we don't know for sure -- I mean this is a virus that can cause very rapid illness. I mean, that's one thing that we know about enterovirus 68. I mean, there are several difference strains of enterovirus but this is the most dangerous form.

Typically, you know, kids who've had breathing problems in the past are going to be most susceptible. They know for sure whether reports at this, you know, is unfortunately and sad, death was caused by enterovirus. They have found the enterovirus in the fluid surrounding his brain and spinal cord.

So, it's just really sad, it just moved very fast in him.

COOPER: And in my understanding this is actually pretty common virus. What's making the strain so dangerous particularly for kids right now?

GUPTA: Well, you know, for kids, there's lot of different entero viruses out there and, you know, we get exposed to entero viruses throughout our lives. Most times it doesn't cause much illness if any illness at all but what it does do is build up a little immunity in us each time we get exposed.

Kids, just because they're younger they haven't been on the planet as long, they don't have as much exposure and therefore they don't have as much protection. So when a bad strain like this suddenly starts circulating -- it circulated before but when it starts circulating again like now, kids end up being the most vulnerable.

COOPER: And why do some kids get paralysis or limb weakness?

GUPTA: We know that there's been like 11 children in Colorado, I think four children in Boston may have similar types of symptoms, the enterovirus maybe getting into the fluid again surrounding their spinal cord.

Only half of the kids tested positive for enterovirus but it could mean that the test came too late and they didn't find the virus. But, that's typically what happens. It keeps into that fluid around the spinal cord and causes some damage to the spinal cord which they have seen on MRI scans.

COOPER: All right, it's just so sad.

Sanjay, thanks very much.

Incredibly sad. Up next, new information on the suspect in the case of the missing UVA student. And what we found out about Jesse Matthew, the allegations against him during his college years ended one school fellow (ph) to tell another about the alleged trouble he got into.

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COOPER: Back in Crime and Punishment tonight. The parents of missing University of Virginia sophomore Hannah Graham released a video for the weekend where they called on anyone to step forward with any information where she can be found.

Here's part of that message.

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SUE GRAHAM, MOTHER OF MISSING UVA STUDENT: Please, please, please help end this nightmare for all of us. Please help us to bring Hannah home.

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COPPER: Out of their, plea comes even with an arrest in the case Jesse Matthew was charged with abduction as we reported last week.

Law enforcement sources tell CNN that DNA links Matthew to the rape and murder of a different woman in Virginia five years ago. We decided to dig into Matthew's past and found more surprises during his college years.

Once again here's Randi Kaye.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another Virginia college campus, another sexual assault accusation against Jesse Matthew.

This time it was September 7th, 2003 at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Paul Trible is the University's President.

PAUL TRIBLE, PRESIDENT, CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY: A complaint was filed by a student. It was thoroughly investigated by our campus police.

KAYE: The school can't say much siting student privacy laws, but Trible tells us the alleged sexual assault took place somewhere on campus. He shared this new information too.

The alleged victim was a student and she decided not to press charges. Still he says she did take part in campus disciplinary hearings testifying against Matthew.

The school couldn't divulge the result of those hearings but Jesse Matthew was gone soon after.

A spokesman for Christopher Newport University says Jesse Matthew played football here for the CNU Captains from mid August to mid September of 2003. He left the university about a month later. The school also says students don't usually leave the second month in this semester or leave the football team so quickly.

The university would not say if Matthew departed on his own or was expelled. For President Trible, this is personal. His was wife was raped back in 1973. Her attacker was never identified.

Matthew had enrolled at Christopher Newport University in January 2003. Shortly after leaving Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia where he was questioned after a woman reported being raped while he was there in 2002.

Investigators determined there wasn't enough evidence to charge him. It seems Christopher Newport University was unaware of that case.

TRIBLE: Unless a student is an academic good standing and disciplinary good standing, we would never accept him.

KAYE: And now Matthew's behavior has raising eyebrows off campus at the Newport News Police Department.

CHIEF RICHARD MYERS, NEWPORT NEWS POLICE: The timeline, the proximity of when he was occupied here is about the only link we have.

KAYE: Chief Richard Myers is reviewing all missing person's cases that occurred while Matthew was attending college here including the disappearance of 24-year old Autumn Day. She was last seen shopping at this food line grocery store on July 24th, 2003. Her car was later discovered in a parking lot.

Less than two months later, this woman, 31-year old Sophia Rivera also disappeared.

Rivera went missing after leaving her home in this neighborhood about seven miles from the campus of Christopher Newport University. Just five days after she vanished September 12, 2003, Jesse Matthew left the football team at the university. A month later, he was gone from the school.

Chief Myers has been fully briefed on both women's cases.

MYERS: At this point, there isn't anything we've uncovered that in anyway links to him.

KAYE: But he isn't ready to stop looking yet either.

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COOPER: Randi Kaye joins us now. Would you able to find out ever if Liberty informed the next university?

KAYE: Not exactly Anderson. There's a lot of finger pointing going on here but what we know is that the NCAA requires that the school where the student is transferring from, the student athlete, they have to send what they call tracer form to the new university and say whether or not the student was in good academic standing and good disciplinary standing.

COOPER: Yeah.

KAYE: And you heard the President of the new school CNU say, I would never accept anybody who wasn't in good standing.

So we went back to Liberty University and we said we would like to see the letter, the tracer form that you sent to CNU.

COOPER: Right.

KAYE: They said they don't have it anymore that the CNAA doesn't require them to keep it after 10 years. But they also couldn't tell us whether or not they sent it directly if it was ever sent or if Jesse Matthew sent it.

And then we don't know if it was complete, whoever sent it, we're they forthcoming?

COOPER: Right.

KAYE: Whether they given honest assessment of his time at Liberty University, and if not who had a hand in that since we know if the letter...

COOPER: Right.

KAYE: ... was ever sent or by whom.

COPPER: Unbelievable. Randi thanks very much. I appreciate the reporting.

More in the breaking in the breaking news. The President say -- saying that Ebola is a top national security priority. Coming up.

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COOPER: Up in our top story, President Obama says that the odds of an outbreak in United States of Ebola are extremely low but he called it a top national security priority.

The freelance cameraman who contract Ebola while working in Liberia arrived in Nebraska for treatment.

Today in Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan is in critical condition. He is reportedly being treated with an experimental drug. And we've learned another detail from CNN's Nima Elbagir on the ground in Duncan's hometown in Liberia that the pregnant woman, her neighbor said Duncan helped, died of Ebola but the Ebola diagnosis was not confirmed until after Duncan had left for United States.

That does it for us. CNN Tonight starts now.