I don't want to add to the fear-mongering but...

I watched "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and played the video game "Plague, Inc" and have come to the conclusion that we're all screwed.
 
Hopefully, this latest outbreak of Ebola, now that it has gained our attention, will result in more research into cures/vaccines. Hasn't been a financial incentive to do so (what big pharma wants to come up with something for poor Africans). Maybe the fear of a worldwide pandemic will be incentive.
 
Monrovia (AFP) - Seventeen Ebola patients in Liberia who fled from a guarantine centre after it was attacked by club-wielding youths were missing on Sunday, striking a fresh blow to efforts to contain the deadly virus.

The attack on the Monrovia centre late Saturday highlighted the challenge faced by health authorities battling the epidemic that has killed 1,145 people since it erupted in west Africa early this year, spreading panic among local populations.

Doctors and nurses are not only fighting the disease, but a deep mistrust in communities often in the thrall of wild rumours that the virus was invented by the West or is a hoax.

"They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone," said Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the raid in the Liberian capital's densely populated West Point slum.

The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted insults about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and yelled "there's no Ebola," she said, adding that nurses had also fled the centre.

A health ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the youths took away medicines, mattresses and bedding from the high school which had been turned into an isolation centre to deal with the rapidly spreading virus.

That's a sad and horrifying scene. If Ebola ever reaches Egypt, this will get bad, very quickly.
 
BBC was reporting late last night that the mattresses/bedding looted from the quarantine center were believed to have Ebola blood/vomit stains, the use of which could end up greatly perpetuating the spread of the contagion in Monrovia. The country (population 4 million) only had 250 doctors to begin with -- many have died or closed up shop. Relief organizations are understandably hesitant to send their workers into the region.

Meanwhile, NYT writes in yesterday's edition that President Sirleaf made several personal calls to the Obama administration asking for batches of the 'ZMapp' vaccine. She got three syringes.
 
It's like the last 200 plus years of our technological and scientific advancements have yet to reach many of the tribal parts of Africa.
 
Krgrecw said:
It's like the last 200 plus years of our technological and scientific advancements have yet to reach many of the tribal parts of Africa.
Click to expand...

it's like talking about scientific research with conservatives state side
 
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