The things that will amplify the effect of this virus and end up killing people are ignorance, fear and apathy.
That is why diseases like this need to be addressed at the source early on, not with money, but with skilled people, appropriate equipment which is put in place quickly and education. Training health workers and keeping local hospitals open for easily preventable deaths, having quckly established quarantines for all suspected Ebola cases.
The method of transmission is easy to contain but it is obvious that is not happening due to not having equipment to quarantine people properly, not accessing medical treatment at all and the transmission routes not being known. People have been dying in cars and these cars need to be disposed of thoughtfully so no one tries to get in the cars and comes in contact with the virus. There needs to be people to give education in the appropriate languages as well.
@The Albatross is right a smaller world means we all live in a smaller petri dish. Which means an incident like this needs to be given the same attention like something that occurs in our own backyard.
@Anarchy money is not the answer, at times, (I am aware of corruption being an issue) but actual supplies that hit the nail on the head in terms of containment, quarantine, treatment and education could have turned this whole situation around. If actual resources had been put in place right at the beginning, then it would never have got to the stage that it is now with a case in the U.S. The U.S will be fine, it will deal with it proactively contain the disease, but it should not have got to this point.
If countries won't provide practical resources, education and physical items for humanitarian reasons, then this situation illustrates that self preservation and enlightened self interest has a particular role to play. Physical quarantine items, personal protective equipment and general protective equipment had been provided right at the beginning, with extensive language education provided to the local health and general populations we would not be facing what we are facing now. All area/s that had Ebola could have been quarantined. The surrounding areas could have been educated, first the medical staff then the local populations. If people had protective equipment to look after their loved ones, well it stops transmission and those horrible occurances that happen when people are out if their minds in fear, no excuse for killing medical practitioners, however education gloves, masks etc and a clear understanding of transmission routes do a lot to as assuage people's terror and give them practical tools for their survival, which is ultimately linked to ours.
You see viruses can mutate and if Ebola did that, though it is unlikely, it could result in a pandemic. So I see the Ebola case in the U.S as an occasion for a dialogue. How much money do we put on our lives? Proportionally, say in comparison to the money we have spent on terrorism, if we had invested the same amount of monies in Africa, right at the beginning, had there been immediate intervention it would have been a small outbreak in Africa. Now we have had a couple of suspected cases in Australia. Australia has good medical responses, like the U.S has good responses so we will be fine. But what if the person in Texas had gone to a country that did not and spread it there? The more it spreads, the more chance of mutations.
So yes, the headlines might be alarmist, as they are in Australia, just about everyday on a range of issues, but this a much more serious threat. I would suggest that thinking about investing, in terms of protecting our own countries, for disease outbreaks like this, on immediate highly trained personnel, physical quarantine items in future, coupled with extensive education, so there is no ripple in the pond effect of Ebola spreading out.
