Actually, this is a false assurance. I've been following the Ebola epidemic (soon to be a pandemic) with extreme interest via West African newspapers. Liberia has taken the insane measure of walling off the largest slum in Monrovia, West Point, in an attempt to contain Ebola. No one can enter or leave.

In effect, they have condemned 75,000 of Liberia's poorest to their fates. Live or die. No medical aid is being provided. Unwittingly, they have created the optimum conditions for the virus to adapt to an even more efficient killer.

Also, they are dumping Ebola victims in the St. Paul River, piling them up on vacant lots where dogs are eating them or just leaving them where people die. The fear and distrust by medical personnel is so great that very few are actually participating in any containment measures.

The panic is worst in Liberia, which is presently the hardest hit nation but it's growing in Sierra Leone and Guinea. The latter two countries are trying to prevent movement between districts within their own borders but it's a futile effort. Even national borders are so porous that people have simply switched to nighttime to travel anywhere they need to go.

In my opinion, the big threat to the world will come from Nigeria. It's the most populous nation in Africa and one of the most densely packed, especially in Lagos State. Nigeria's health system is only marginally better than Liberia's and they have lost control of the Ebola presence that was introduced by the visiting and infected Amero-Liberian doctor, Patrick Stewart, who died.

Ebola, like all mononegaviruses, will evolve quickly to maximize its advantage in a new environment. This one, a new strain that had never before been encountered, may already have made the jump to a species that is more easily spread between humans.

Additionally, another strain representing another outbreak, has popped up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This post was edited on 8/28/14 at 9:51 pm