Ebola Outbreak In Congo

My personal nightmare is an airborne Ebola. This is *merely* the conventional sort:

[from Congo Confirms Deadly Ebola Outbreak - New York Times]

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The World Health Organization issued an alert Tuesday urging more doctors to travel to Congo to combat an outbreak of Ebola fever, which kills nearly all of those it infects and has no cure or treatment.

The Congolese government on Tuesday declared a quarantine of the area in southeastern Congo, spokesman Toussaint Tshilobo said. Experts from Medecins Sans Frontieres are already treating patients, but more help was needed.

The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a lab in Gabon confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever, and specifically as Ebola, Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said on national television Monday. He did not provide further details.

According to WHO, five samples have tested positive for Ebola. About 40 more samples are pending.

At least 167 people have died in the affected region over about four months and nearly 400 have fallen ill, said Jean-Constatin Kanow, chief medical inspector for Congo’s Kasai Oriental Province. Kinshasa, the capital, is 430 miles northwest of the area.