Fighting Ebola When Mourners Fight the Responders

I keep wondering when ebola is going to become world wide

This is our future if anti-Vaxxers have their way.

"accusing them of stealing the organs of corpses" Make you feel superior? There are far more people in the US who, without evidence, believe that organ theft occurs here than the number believing it in Africa, with as tragic an outcome. The ghoulish character it gives organ donation prompts rejection of the kind of organ donation system that works, altruistic by permission of next of kin. As a result children, women, and men, of all races and income levels, die on the waiting list.

It's easy for many in our society to be appalled at their ignorance which only harms them in the not quite so long run as the refusal to allow proper burial, containment, testing, vaccination, and immediate treatment for those infected allows the virus to spread even further. We shouldn't be so quick to judge, this is the end result when scientific expertise is dismissed, politicians and lobbyists question consensus (looking at you, GOP), disinformation and misinformation proliferate on social media, and more of the population adopts Isaac Asimov's warning of "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." We're seeing it with the anti-vaxxers and the current measles outbreak, which I predict is far from over. That's what happens with infectious diseases with a long latency between the onset of symptoms and when the affected individual is first contagious. Need I mention climate change, or why we want regulations to check air, water, and soil pollution in lieu of corporate profits and convenience? If current trends aren't reversed, and none of the news give any hope that's on the horizon, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine a similar scenario here. Too many folks are deeply suspicious of government and science. This is a canary in the coal mine of sorts.

Ebola is not the fastest spreading virus, in part because it is so lethal. The immunizations also seem promising. Overall we are handling it greatly. But nothing is immune to irrationality, ignorance and plain stupidity.

Horrible, tragic article. Read Gina Kolata's book "Flu" about how the 1918 flu epidemic, newly crossed over to humans from pigs, devastated the planet, with no cure available..... In fact, the above book should be required reading for all anti vaxxers, since it occurred in the days before there was a flu vaccine (though by now we should all understand the flu, which is a virus, morphs regularly and so the flu vaccine is always a "best effort"). No idea what can be done in the Congo....if the people hate/ fear the health workers so much.....just tragic and will get worse.

Mistrust is key. Americans mistrust vaccinations largely because health care is for profit. Everyone beats the autism drum as the reason, because that makes anti-vaxers look like idiots. I think the deeper cause is mistrust of a for-profit system. Scare tactics are used to push vaccines on TV, Shingles, Hepatitis C .. Ca Ching! It’s not for our health or well-being. $$ Lets have a national health system, and then we’ll trust vaccine recommendations. I am not an anti-vaxer, but I do think too many are required of young children. Chose the most important. I feel we know very little about the effect of bombarding an immature immune system with so many threats, so soon. I an tired of pro-vaccination hysteria.

You would think that modern communication methods would help the medical community confront this epidemic. Instead, it only seems to hinder their efforts because of disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Irrationality is so prevalent in the human species that one would think it conferred an evolutionary advantage.

The signs and symptoms of Ebola are similar to those of malaria. In West Africa in 2014-15 protocol demanded we quarantine any person who displayed one or more of several signs and symptoms: temperature over 101.5, blood shot eyes, patient report of nausea/vomiting. recent contact with a known Ebola victim. Malaria patients were mixed with Ebola patients in wards called Suspect units until test results could confirm the disease. Malaria patients were treated for several days and released. Weeks later some these patients would return to us as Ebola patients. We simply did not have the resources to isolate each patient. The open ward of Suspect Units was an unnecessary risk to patients, rationalized away by the fact health workers could not tell the difference if a fever was caused by Ebola or something else, an excess of caution to protect the larger community over the rights of the individual. As best I can tell, the current response is rather anemic compared to the West Africa outbreak. With warlords causing problems, there needs to be a more robust military element to this response to guard Ebola treatment efforts and facilities.

DRC is a failed state. Everything starts and ends with that fact, including Ebola outbreaks.

This situation, and the anti-vaxxers in supposedly first-world countries, shows us how fragile our trust is, in modern medicine, in science, in government, and in our social infrastructures. The hostility towards refugees, the clinging to religious teachings of centuries ago, the mindless partisanship of politics . . . Nevertheless, trust has been shown to be genetically part of us, and I'm hoping for more sanity to prevail.

Why is the World not stepping up to irradiate Ebola before a widespread outbreak outside of Africa? We now have the vaccine which is effective.

Even though I admire the health workers who put themselves at risk, I wonder why they try so hard. There are countless areas of the globe that both need and want assistance. It seems there's easier paths to helping more people. Ebola isn't the only scourge on the planet; malaria, polio, measles and countless other illnesses afflict populations which offer far less resistance. Noble motivations, but dangerous situations and modest outcomes.