The infrastructure in most of the afflicted countries isn't very good. As Musket so astutely pointed out, starvation isn't contagious. However, numbness to death is contagious. We have been watching starving kids for decades; dead kids bombed in war for decades, kids hacked to death by machetes for decades. Four thousand deaths is a pittance in comparison.

Some facts about Ebola elude even the 'educated' parts of the world. Hell, we struggle to deal with whether it can go aerosol without an understanding of what that really means. Can the disease spread through the air? Of course it can. Don't believe that, just go stand in front of an Ebola carrier when s/he sneezes. Yes it can transmit through the air.

Maybe a mantoux test adapted for Ebola could be developed. (Wayward thought.)

I do understand the 'need to help' syndrome. That said, isolation is the only thing other than a vaccine that will stop the spread of the disease. Superstition or folk wisdom/religion does little to help matters. Lead, follow or get out of the way mightn't be such a bad slogan at this juncture.

A Herman cartoon (tried to locate but can't) showed a man with splotches covering much of his body standing before a doctor who was sitting at his desk. Beneath the desk the doctor is loading a revolver. The caption reads "I'm sure you'll understand. We don't want to start an epidemic do we?" That used to be funny.

This whole religious thing in Africa (and elsewhere) is somewhat of a mystery to me. I expect it will remain so. However, emergency situations are not improved when the people driving the boats are all going in different directions. And as always, the people who need to be in control of the situation have to understand logistics because a big part of the present problem is that the logistics are a mess.

Situations of this nature need people who deal with the disease, people who deal with the populations involved and people to do as they are instructed without guidance from the heavens. In other words, there has to be a central command with the authority and muscle to do what needs doing.

"MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Canadian government will send 300,000 personal protective equipment (PPE), or face shields, to West Africa to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, the country's Public Health Agency said in a news release."

Please note that this started in early to mid-September and Canada eventually received word on where to deliver the damned things. Folks, that ain't organization and the organization I think mostly at fault is the WHO. I am still waiting for them to do something right.

And last, because I have likely pissed off everyone, I figure that if the geometric growth of Ebola spread holds true for another forty weeks, over seven billion people will be infected.

"There was an acute shortage of masks and protective clothing for the medical and health personnel, who were hard hit by the disease. Lack of epidemiological information about the disease hampered the prompt application of effective control measures. Because of inadequate communication, panic developed in the community and weakened cooperation and support from the public."

That was said about the SARS epidemic of 2003.

Have a good day all.