Epidemics of Confusion

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Wed, 2014-11-12 11:11 — mike kraft

Like AIDS before it, Ebola Isn't explained clearly by officials

NEW YORK TIMES Nov. 11, 2014

Commentary by LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, M.D.

WASHINGTON — A mysterious virus emerges in Africa and makes its way to our shores. An anxious and skeptical public rejects scientific evidence that the lethal virus is transmitted only through body fluids. There are no drugs to effectively treat infected patients, nor a vaccine to prevent new cases.

People shun the infected and their contacts; some demand quarantines. Conspiracy theorists contend the virus escaped from government laboratories.

No, the virus is not Ebola. It is the outbreak in the early 1980s of the virus that causes AIDS.

The epidemics have prompted eerily similar reactions from health officials and the public, raising crucial questions about why the world remains persistently unprepared to react to the sudden emergence of viral threats.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/health/like-aids-before-it-ebola-isnt-explained-clearly-by-officials.html?_r=0

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