Ebola Response

I wonder if Switzerland, The Netherlands and France had an Ebola outbreak, whether the west would be so blasé about dealing with this epidemic. A few doses of an untested drug is not an answer. A massive response, financial and medical, is needed.  Compare this response to the attention Ukraine is getting. Ukraine is not capable of spreading and turning into a global epidemic yet the West is fixated on events taking place there.

Why is there such a dearth of resources being focused on the Ebola crisis in West Africa?  I remember reading once that if the whole of Africa were to disappear tomorrow the world economy would hardly notice it's absence.  It all comes down to economics: West Africa is simply not important globally to warrant a well resourced response. If, however, a case were to appear in a western nation I'm sure the whole tone of the response by the west would ramp up to hysterical levels.

Note, however, that Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have confirmed cases of people infected with Ebola. This is already beyond the original three of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Below are the latest figures from the Centre for Disease Control. 

CDC's Update as of August 14, 2014

Case Counts

Total Cases

Updated: August 15, 2014

• Suspected and Confirmed Case Count:2127
• Suspected Case Deaths: 1145
• Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 1310

Cases by Country

Guinea

• Suspected and Confirmed Case Count:519
• Suspected Case Deaths: 380
• Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 376

Liberia

• Suspected and Confirmed Case Count:786
• Suspected Case Deaths: 413
• Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 190

Nigeria

• Suspected and Confirmed Case Count: 12
• Suspected and Confirmed Case Deaths: 4
• Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 11

Sierra Leone

• Suspected and Confirmed Case Count:810
• Suspected and Confirmed Case Deaths:348
• Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 733