Challenge of Ebola

Ebola is such a threat because it has not been researched as extensively as AIDS or malaria. Before the current outbreak, Ebola was so deadly as to be almost self-limiting. Now, several people have traveled from parts of Africa where the disease is endemic to the United States and Europe while carrying the pathogen. They have subsequently infected health workers who were treating them. To this point, there is no indication that Ebola has mutated to where it can be spread in the air as the flu virus is. Because it has not happened yet does not necessarily mean that it can not happen. Health workers returning to America or Europe from Ebola-afflicted areas should self-quarantine until any danger that they have Ebola has passed. The number of days for this has now apparently been extended from twenty-one to forty-two. Commercial air travel should be suspended out of the "Hot Zone" countries. Research should be accelerated into treatments, a vaccine, and a cure for this dread disease.