A conversation about the world's major health threats
What progress are scientists and doctors making in their efforts to wipe out the world's major health threats?
Dr. Tara Narula, a cardiologist at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital and a CBS News medical contributor, gave CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett an update on this week's episode of "The Takeout" podcast.
Garrett asked Narula about President Trump's recent prediction that HIV/AIDS would be eradicated within a decade. "Most people have no idea that we're so close — what's happening with respect to the eradication of AIDS, which nobody would've thought of two years ago. And now we're really at a point where we can eradicate AIDS from the United States within 10 years," Mr. Trump said in a cabinet meeting in July.
Narula was less certain than the president. However, she said that while eradication may not be as close as he said it was, there's some hope that Mr. Trump is right that HIV/AIDS will be wiped out at some point.
"We are a ways away, but we're inching closer," Narula said. "I absolutely think it will happen, the question is when."
Narula also talked with Garrett about the Africa's Ebola virus, which can seem like a remote concern for most Americans. She told him why they should care.
"Our world is getting smaller and smaller when it comes to infectious disease," Narula said, pointing to the Zika virus as an example. "While yes, it doesn't actually affect us right now, the chances of an infectious disease process that's somewhere else coming to us is high."
For more of Major's conversation with Tara Narula, download "The Takeout" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or Spotify. New episodes are available every Friday morning. Also, you can watch "The Takeout" on CBSN Friday at 5pm, 9pm, and 12am ET and Saturday at 1pm, 9pm, and 12am ET. For a full archive of "The Takeout" episodes, visit www.takeoutpodcast.com. And you can listen to "The Takeout" on select CBS News Radio affiliates (check your local listings).
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