Are we ready for Ebola?

You have probably read that there has been another outbreak of Ebola in the Congo.

We all remember the last big Ebola outbreak, only two years ago in West Africa, when 30,000 people contracted Ebola and 11,000 people died.  The disease made it to other countries as well, including to the United States when a man who had recently travelled to Africa became ill and died from the disease after being admitted to a hospital.  Two of his nurses also became ill fro the disease.

Have we made any progress in fighting this disease?

There are also now rapid response teams that can be deployed to any nation having an outbreak in order to fight this disease.

There are also now mobile diagnosis units that can perform the test to see if a patient has Ebola.  Before, the samples had to be flown to special labs which took time.

And, there is finally a vaccination for Ebola, which can be immediately shipped to any country with an outbreak.