Ebola Update (11/23/2014)

Today's news is a bit of mixed bag. First, the good news. The number of new cases in Liberia continues to drop. Currently, only 20 more cases are being reported per day, down from the 100 per day in August.

However, the rest of the news is more glum. A BBC reporter travelled from Sierra Leone to Guinea to report on what she saw. While Sierra Leone has taken Ebola seriously--there were multiple check stops to check temperatures, for instance--where in Guinea, the reporter traveled 50 miles before being asked to wash her hands or have her temperature checked. And this was only because she had stopped at a small
Ebola holding center. She writes:

We wander inside. It's the first time we've been asked to wash our hands and have our temperatures checked since we arrived in Guinea. 

It's eerily quiet. There are around 15 staff, but no patients. 

I ask the doctor in charge why it is so quiet. 

"Some people prefer to die in the village rather than come here to get help," he says.

At another village, they are met by men who do not believe in Ebola. They don't know what is killing the people, but it is not Ebola because Ebola is not real. Denial.

Thailand may soon have an Ebola problem. A Sierra Leonean man who had come to Thailand was suspected of having Ebola symptoms. He was supposed to check in regularly with a hospital, but has instead disappeared. There is a manhunt underway.

Finally, officers of the Public Health Services--a uniformed branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, with military ranks--were reported as holding services to honor the death of a nurse they had been treating. The Public Health Service has taken over treatment of infected health care workers in Liberia.