Should we be concerned about the Ebola Virus?

Earlier this week the World Health Organization reported that the Ebola outbreak could not be contained.  Previous to that WHO reported that they expected 20,000 deaths from the Ebola virus.  Ebola is incurable and for most fatal.  The biggest problem is that Ebola is spreading in countries in Africa that are poverty stricken, lack basic necessities such as proper sanitation, good nutrition and proper medical care.  This is an environment ripe for the spread of any disease.

Last month 2 American missionaries came home to America to be treated for Ebola and today another American working in Liberia came home to America to bee treated for Ebola.  The WHO is worried about not being able to contain the Ebola outbreak and yet they are letting infected people who should be in quarantine leave the area and go where there is no outbreak.  Granted the US has better medical facilities, better sanitation and better access to good nutrition but still it was a risk to expose a country not infected to a deadly virus. 

I don't want to be an alarmist.  For years there has been a large prediction of a pandemic.  I for one have never listened to the alarmists who were broadcasting that a pandemic was due to hit our world.  At the time the likely candidates were Avian or Swine Flu.  Those outbreaks were stopped without the massive loss of live predicted.  Now we have the Ebola virus and unlike Avian and Swine Flu, it kills the majority of people infected.  This is a better candidate for Pandemic.  In the past Ebola has only infected small parts of Africa and were quickly contained.  That is not the case this time.
 
I have never put much trust in the World Health Organization.  I have always viewed them as an organization that only suggests the worst case scenario.  Here is my concern this time around.  Is the World Health Organization creating the situation that will cause the Pandemic?  Every Westerner with any bit of knowledge about how disease spreads knows the best way to prevent additional exposure to disease outbreak is quarantine.  What does that mean in todays world where airline travel makes it easy to bring a disease from one country to another.  If you truly want to stop an outbreak from going to epidemic and then pandemic that means you quarantine the affected areas.  That means Closing the borders, Closing down the airports to outgoing flights, closing the train and bus depots to outgoing traffic.  By all means allow medical, humanitarian and military personnel into the area to treat, control and feed the people.  Here is the big missing ingredient as well anyone going in shouldn't be able to get out until the outbreak or epidemic is declared over.  This may seem callous to not allow infected people to go home and be with their loved ones in their last days with only ashes for the loved ones to say goodbye to, but it is the only way to insure that the disease stays contained.

By sending the missionaries and medical worker to  America no matter how many precautions were taken, the World Health Organization has allowed the risk of exposure to areas outside the affected areas.  This is the kind of behavior that can cause a pandemic.  No one may become infected by those sent home sick this time around but what about future cases?  If sending Americans home diagnosed with Ebola becomes a regular thing it will only be a matter of time before mistakes are made and the virus spreads overseas.  If the World Health Organization is allowing infected people home to other countries when will mistakes be made there.

At this time I don't think that we need to worry about pandemic, but if procedures do not begin to change and measures taken to quarantine the affected areas completely, the virus will spread.  It only takes one infected person to go somewhere else undetected for the virus to spread.  It only takes one mistake in protections surrounding those medical personnel who are infected and sent home.  It may seem inhumane to bring everyone infected with the Ebola virus to one place essentially to die, but it is the only way to protect the world at large.  It would be better for 10 infected Americans to die in a foreign country then to risk bringing a deadly virus into a population that has used antibiotics and vaccinations to fight disease for generations.  Just like the Native American population had never been faced with measles and smallpox making their exposure even more deadly than in Europe.  In a population that has never been exposed to Ebola and had weakened immune systems due to antibiotics and vaccinations instead of an 80% fatality rate it will be a 100%  fatality rate.