What’s on my mind this month is the tenacity, bravery and dedication of the healthcare professionals who volunteer to go to the front lines of deadly infectious disease outbreaks because of their commitment to preserving the well-being of all people.
Since the news of an Ebola outbreak in Guinea was announced in March of this year, every day we hear updates about the toll this virus has taken on the people of West Africa. Ebola hemorrhagic fever has swept through multiple countries, killing an estimated 1 in 2 people who have become infected. The September 23, 2014 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), estimated that, under a worst-case scenario, 1.4 million people could be infected with the virus by January 20, 2015, and a similar report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, predicted that Ebola might become endemic to Africa, along the lines of HIV/AIDS.