The outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa has shown how difficult it is to prevent an infectious disease from spreading into other countries.

This is even more so when it starts in a poor country with weak public health infrastructure.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that in addition to causing catastrophic loss of life, a crisis on this scale has the capacity to cripple economies.

The IMF recently established a trust fund to help poor countries contain the spread of future epidemics before they spill across borders.

Olga Jonas, World Bank Economic Advisor tells Mark Betancourt that lessons can be learned from pandemics of the past.

Duration: 4’13”