Some good news on the Ebola front:
Since the first patient — a dying Liberian-American — flew into Lagos, Nigeria, on July 20, the disease spread to 20 other people in two cities, who had contact with nearly 900 others. But every known case has now died or recovered, and the cure rate was unusually high for an African outbreak. Virtually all the contacts have passed the incubation period without falling ill.
The success was in part due to the existence of an emergency command center paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight polio. As soon as the outbreak began, it was turned into the Ebola Emergency Operations Center.
No doubt, the success in Nigeria has been due to a combination of quick reaction on the part of Nigerian and international authorities, the fact that the disease did not originate in the country so it as easier to isolate people who may have been potentially exposed to the disease, and the fact that Nigeria likely has a better medical infrastructure than Sierra Leone and the other western African nations that continue to battle the disease.
