Outbreak..not the movie
Ebola first appeared in humans in 1976 in Central Africa and South Sudan. Is natural hosts are believed to be fruit bats. In parts of Africa these are eaten as a market delicacy. The virus was named after the Ebola river, round which the first cases appeared.
In an age where air travel facilitates the movement of infected people , the recent outbreak is not spreading particularly in countries with poor medical standards and facilities but threatening to harm the economies of Africa in general and perhaps the rest of the world. That is the view of both the IMF and World bank.
The IMF, under Christine Lagarde, has announced , in a departure from its normal policy of discouraging budget deficits, it would be appropriate for those countries at the epicentre of the outbreak to increase their deficits to contain the virus. The World Bank who normally encourages private investment to improve facilities is also an agreement under the circumstances.
Ebola is highly infectious but less contagious as it is not an airborne virus. It is infectious in that a single virus can cause death,
