As bodies continue to line the streets of countries in Africa's western provinces, nations worldwide have begun to express their own concerns for the containment, treatment and possible ramifications of the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Known to most as "Hemorrhagic Fever" because of the final stages of infection, Ebola is a viral pathogen whose origins were documented during the mid-1970's outbreak in regions of Africa's Zaire and the Sudan when the virus was left untreated with a 90% incidence of fatality after transmission. Thought to have been transmitted to humans by the consumption of bushmeat, or the dead carcasses of African monkeys and fruit-foraging bats, the mysterious conditions surrounding the origins of the disease are not well-known to the African public who has dealt with the infection first-hand in recent generations.
Reemerging from the forests of the western African countries nearly four decades later, questions may arise to Ebola's origin stories, however, the viruses path of destruction has been clear within expectations.
"A very dangerous virus got into a place in the world that is the least prepared to deal with it" tropical medical researcher from Tulane University, Daniel Bausch said. "Biological and ecological factors may drive emergence of the virus from the forest, but clearly, the sociopolitical landscape dictates where it goes from there."
Decimating populations in rural areas with limited access to medical treatment, and poorer overall hygiene and anti-contamination practices, Ebola has found a home in the West African populations for the time being-as the virus spreads quickly from host to prey in a region with little to no safeguards in place for the people.
In Africa, resembling the outbreaks of other plagues, mass hysteria is leading to struggles between the public and government officials, as the general populace begins to defy quarantine orders from armed militants in regions of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Liberian Minister of Information Lewis Brown says that while the government is attempting to isolate the issues, many African regard Ebola isolation wards as death traps. "[And] they are therefore removing [infected] bodies from their homes and are putting them out in the street" Brown says. "They're exposing themselves to the risk of being contaminated, [and therefore] we ask people to please leave the bodies in their homes and [the Liberian government] will pick them up."
But here in the States and in parts of Northern Europe, the possibility of transmission is not coming into question, but rather how it may happen. Biological anthropologist at Cambridge University, Dr. Peter Walsh warns that although risk of pandemic transmission is highly unlikely, biological warfare and acts of terrorism could pose a threat on the global level.
"A bigger and more serious risk is that a group manages to harness the virus as a power, then explodes it as a bomb in a highly populated area" Dr. Walsh says. "It could cause a large number of horrific deaths. [And although] only a handful of labs worldwide have the Ebola virus, and they are extremely well-protected, the risk is that a terrorist group seeks to obtain the virus out in West Africa."
With over 800 confirmed deaths and a fatality rate greater than 60%, fear is continuing to develop in countries worldwide as death counts continue to grow and the virus approaches the verge of a pandemic scale.
