Ebola outbreak is quelled — this time

..While the immediate crisis has been averted with only 60 diagnosed patients so far, this was an outbreak that had many in the international public health community concerned. The problem was the long lag in determining whether the mysterious deaths were, indeed, part of an Ebola outbreak. In the western Kibaale district, the possibility that Ebola was responsible for the first victim’s death was not immediately understood since the patient, and several others, did not have typical symptoms. They suffered from fevers and vomiting, but there was no sign of hemorrhaging.

Funerals for the victims, who appeared to die out of the blue, became large public events where exposed family members mingled with neighbors and friends, thereby increasing the likelihood that the virus would spread. (It passes through blood or other bodily fluid secretions.) An unsuspecting public health worker from the Kibaale district then travelled to the capital city of Kampala and died there. Kampala has about 1.5 million citizens.

At last tracking, the US Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and Uganda’s ministry of health (which has increased both access and communication with support from the Gates Foundation) have all deployed resources. They now believe that they have identified the 400 or so people who came into contact with exposed patients. Monitoring of these patients will last another 21 days until the virus is contained. This means, sadly, until it has finally killed all its victims and has no other place to go....
http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/08/09/how-stop-deadly-virus/IPKgrWeXfYfyJpnFRvRvOO/story.html