There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us
up at night.
megacities in other regions of the developing world.
This outbreak is very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40 years.
It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated villages.
But there has
been a 300 percent increase in Africa’s population over the last four
decades, much of it in large city slums.
What happens when an infected
person yet to become ill travels by plane to Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa or
Mogadishu — or even Karachi, Jakarta, Mexico City or Dhaka?
The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly
but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to
become transmissible through the air.
You can now get Ebola only through direct contact with bodily fluids.
But viruses like Ebola are notoriously
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