http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/10/05/how-to-stop-ebola-ban-air-travel-from-liberia-sierra-leone-and-guinea/10/05/2014 @ 3:30PM 6,509 views
How To Stop Ebola: Ban Air Travel From Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Guinea
Steven Salzberg
I never thought I’d find myself agreeing with Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. But this week, Governor Jindal called for a ban on air travel to the U.S. from the countries where the epidemic is present. He’s right: a flight ban is the best way to keep Ebola from spreading.
In the world of infectious diseases, we often hear the phrase that the next epidemic is “one flight away” from the U.S. That’s true—but we don’t usually know where that flight will originate, so we can’t simply ban all flights to the U.S. from everywhere. With Ebola, though, we know the source: the epidemic is confined to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
As the Ebola crisis has grown in West Africa, the need to stop its spread has grown ever more urgent. The number of cases is now over 20,000, and the CDC estimates that by January, Liberia and Sierra Leone will have 1.4 million people with Ebola infections. These are frightening numbers.
The Ebola virus has no treatment and no cure, although some promising research is under way (as I’ve written about previously). According to the WHO, the Ebola fatality rate is 50%. This makes it one of the deadliest diseases known to affect humans.
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