Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) workers transport the body of an Ebola patient in Guinea last Fall [Image: Seyllou, AFP/Getty Images]
Interesting dichotomy on how much things change in one year: I am currently preparing intro virology slides for class on Tuesday (sidebar, welcome University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine first years!), and was looking through last year's for perspective. Last year at this time much of the world was in panic mode about the spiraling Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and we in the US were having a moderately disturbing debate about the repatriation of Dr. Kent Brantly, who was the first Ebola patient to receive treatment on US soil. I bring this up because Ebola was prominently featured in my slides, which I didn't want to post until the 11th hour because I was expecting news that Dr. Brantly had died to come in at any moment, and would have rendered them obsolete. I'm glad to have been wrong about his case, and I'm glad that myself and the majority of my profession were correct in encouraging calmness (and if I may, compassion) regarding Ebola cases. FYI, at this point in time Liberia is almost certified free, Guinea and Sierra Leone still have active disease though the numbers continue to fall, and this week the results of a field trial for an Ebola vaccine were released... showing 100% protection.