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Ebola – Analyses

Lab scientists working with Ebola use respirators, while surgical masks are deemed adequate for nurses at the front line. EPA/Anne-Marie Sanderson/DOH

How are nurses becoming infected with Ebola?

C Raina MacIntyre, UNSW Sydney

American nurse Nina Pham is the second health worker to contract Ebola outside of West Africa while caring for patients with the virus, despite using personal protective equipment. Authorities were quick…
It’s unclear whether Spanish dog Excalibur, pictured here with owner Javier Limon (husband of Ebola-infected nurse Teresa Ramos), was infected. EFE/PACMA

We still don’t know if domestic animals can spread Ebola

Michelle Baker, CSIRO

Spanish authorities have euthanised the dog of Madrid nurse Teresa Romero Ramos, who contracted Ebola. The 12-year-old dog, Excalibur, was not showing symptoms and was not tested for Ebola. But he lived…
Ebola is not spread through small airborne particles or larger droplets from coughing or sneezing. placbo/Flickr

Should we be worried about Ebola becoming airborne?

Dominic Dwyer, University of Sydney

Suggestions the Ebola virus could “mutate” into a form that is transmissible by the respiratory route are speculative, and the likelihood of it happening are low. Nonetheless, the idea appears to have…
Having health-care workers use personal protective equipment significantly reduces the risk of onward transmission. AHMED JALLANZO/EPA

Quarantine works against Ebola but over-use risks disaster

Grant Hill-Cawthorne, University of Sydney

A man in the United States has become the first known international traveller to be infected in the West Africa Ebola epidemic and carry the virus abroad. He is thought to have been infected in Liberia…
West African health-care workers are overworked and under-equipped to deal with the outbreak. European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr

How Ebola started, spread and spiralled out of control

Ian M. Mackay, The University of Queensland; Heather Lander, The University of Texas Medical Branch et Katherine Arden, The University of Queensland

Too slow. Too little, too late. Unprecedented. Out of control. These are just some of the descriptors for the biggest recorded epidemic of human infection by an ebolavirus. The question by some is how…
Foreign minister Julie Bishop (right) says Australians travelling to West Africa must ensure their employers can evacuate them if they become ill as the government will not. Alan Porritt/AAP

Gung-ho on terror, Australia is missing in action against Ebola

Adam Kamradt-Scott, University of Sydney

Well over 5,300 people have been infected and over 2,600 have died in the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. But these numbers are thought to be gross underestimates as even the most conservative projections…
When African nations can effectively curb tax evasion, they may also be able to fight their major health problems. AAP/EPA/AHMED JALLANZO

How tax inspectors could prevent the next Ebola outbreak

Craig Dalton, University of Newcastle

Much has been written about the poor public health and clinical capacity to respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Inadequate medical and nursing staff resources, inadequate isolation wards, inadequate…
Fears surrounding the spraying of disinfectant and quarantine measures have led to protests and riots in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. AHMED JALLANZO/EPA

Don’t panic about Ebola’s spread, here’s what we can do instead

Grant Hill-Cawthorne, University of Sydney et Lyn Gilbert, University of Sydney

News that a 25-year-old Gold Coast man is being quarantined in hospital after returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo two days ago is no reason to panic. If anything, the incident highlights the…
A Liberian nurse disinfects a looted mattress taken from an elementary school that was used as an Ebola isolation unit in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia. AHMED JALLANZO/EPA

Epidemic ethics: four lessons from the current Ebola outbreak

Ian Kerridge, University of Sydney et Lyn Gilbert, University of Sydney

The extent of the current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has belatedly focused the attention of non-governmental organisations, local and Western governments, and international media. What we haven’t…
Major pharmaceutical companies have shown little interest in developing effective treatments for illnesses such as Ebola virus disease. AAP Image/David Crosling

How Western national interest drives Ebola drug development

Christopher Degeling, University of Sydney

Ebola virus disease typically only occurs in rural and remote areas among resource-poor populations. Until the large, recent outbreak in West Africa, cases of the illness were a rarity. So the fact that…
Entry screening aims to identify and deal with travellers coming back from Ebola-affected countries with a fever. EPA/Legnan Koula

Containing the international spread of Ebola

Sanjaya Senanayake, Australian National University

The West African Ebola virus outbreak is already the largest of its kind, both in terms of numbers and geography. And with the most distant parts of the world less than a day’s flight away, it isn’t too…
Second-hand news. Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA

WHO Ebola ethics panel excluded those most affected

Udo Schüklenk, Queen's University, Ontario

The World Health Organisation has been in a rush to deal with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Last week it declared it an international health emergency, and after two infected US doctors were given…
Most agree that if an individual is likely to die and an experimental therapy has a reasonable chance to prevent death, then it should be given. EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo

Fast-tracking access to experimental Ebola drugs

Glenn Marsh, CSIRO

The current outbreak of Zaire Ebola virus in Western Africa is the largest ever recorded. More than 1800 people have been infected and nearly 1000 people have died. But while drug therapies are close to…