General Discussion

You're talking Biosafety Level 3 and 2 biological agents which by definition have some form of treatment. This is documented information that you can read about on a Wiki page or at the CDC website. By definition BSL2 and BSL3 agents are treatable but sometimes the biggest issue to treatment of these is getting enough vaccines (or in the case of Anthrax enough antibiotics) out to the population so they can be treated and safe from infection. Don't get me wrong - when left untreated these are dangerous agents that can kill and in populated areas where sanitation is poor they can spread quickly.

Ebola is a BSL 4 agent. BSL 4 agents are mainly supervirus that have no known treatment or vaccine. Sure they have tried a few things that have have worked with this recent release but that was because they were able to get to the patient early and even then it wasn't always successful. The treatment for these viruses are usually found on the host species since these viruses tend to live on other species for years like bats or monkeys and the somehow find their way into the human population. Past cases of Ebola have had death rates as high as 90%. There was even a case of Ebola here in the United States that had 0% (turns out it was strain of Ebola that only killed Monkeys - that is now referred to as the Ebola Reston strain since it was in Reston Virginia where it killed a warehouse of Monkeys.). But when researches look as BSL 4 agents they wear spacesuits and they go into laboratories that are under severe lockdown because these things are serious motherfuckers that you do NOT want to mess with.

The reason this thing has spread like it has in Africa is because how easy it does get from one person to another because of the lack of sanitation in some parts of the country over there. When Ebola hits hard, the patient is going to have stuff coming out from all openings of their body - the diarrhea, the vomit, the bleeding of the eyes and other openings on the body. All of that stuff is teaming to the brim with live Ebola waiting to find a new body. The best way to contain this stuff is to contain the population that has it to ensure that they do not get into the uninfected population. That's not easy to do in a 3rd country like Liberia or Sierra Leone and it's why this thing is going bonkers.

But what happened in Dallas is bad. First, hospital works have no clue what to expect when they see someone walk in with Ebola. They let that patient go and if that guy started spewing goo from every pore of his body someone is going to accidentally touch that stuff and then the cycle grows.

I blame the Media. Someone should have kept in mind the real threat of BSL2 and BSL3 agents and not have made such media shitstorms over nothing. Sure report about them but don't turn them into a 3-ring circus.

As for Ebola, probably nothing if we're smart about this. Hospitals need to be aware this could be happening and hopefully the next time someone walks in they take it a bit more serious.