On August 1st this site posted about the threat of Ebola in West Africa. In the two months since the worst Ebola outbreak in history has only grown. The biggest concentration of those infected has been found in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea with those countries reporting over 7400 cases and about 3500 deaths. The illness can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids otherwise the number would be significantly higher. Despite this limitation the number of new cases is doubling roughly every three weeks. Those most susceptible to contracting Ebola are health care workers due to their direct contact with the infected. The lack of basic medical supplies, such as latex gloves and masks, has created a situation where the people doing the most to combat the spread of Ebola and care for the ill have become its primary victims.
The international response to the crisis has been lacking at best. A handful of countries including Britain, China, and Cuba have sent a small number of medical professionals to help local doctors. The greatest outside support West Africa has received came from the United Stated as President Obama recently announced that he was committing the resources of the U.S. military to establish 17 field hospitals to slow down the disease. Not only is there a moral imperative to act but there is an economic one as well, the longer the world waits to deal with the issue the cost of solving the crisis becomes significantly greater.
Last week the first case of Ebola outside of West Africa was confirmed in the United States. A man from Liberia visiting his son and fiancé in Dallas checked into a hospital and was diagnosed. This singular case was identified early and is highly unlikely to create a mass infection in the United States. It has served a greater purpose by bringing more attention to the growing crisis in West Africa. Hopefully, the perception of a threat to the west will encourage the rich world to contribute more to the struggle; ideally they could begin by sending in enough gloves and masks to protect the front line of defense, doctors and nurses.