An important post. When people in the West read about an outbreak of Lassa fever, they don't pay much attention, because the outbreak is in Africa. The belief is that Lassa Fever will never touch them. This is a false confidence. An article in the British Medical Journal outlines how this disease can be used as a biological weapon https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC286250/. The disease is highly contagious and has poor treatment options--mostly support of the patient and a weakly effective antiviral. When researchers tried working on it way back in 1969, they closed down the operation because transmission in the lab was occurring and they didn't understand how http://ymm.yale.edu/fw2004/features/capsule/52785/. Of course we should primarily be interested in studying this disease because it brings suffering to hundreds of thousands of people. But if compassion isn't sufficient to grab our attention, self interest dictates that we do take notice. We need a vaccine, and effective treatment for Lassa Fever.
I'm resteeming and sharing on Twitter.