What's Crazy in Healthcare

Over a thousand known cases of Ebola, with 17 confirmed and about 240 suspected deaths. What’s the world coming to? Is this the Zombie Apocalypse?

© 2026 by Michael Fine

Hantavirus on a ship, spreading person to person. Ebola spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Uganda. 13 cases of Hantavirus, with three deaths. Over a thousand known cases of Ebola, with 17 confirmed and about 240 suspected deaths. What’s the world coming to? Is this the Zombie Apocalypse?

My first advice is to calm down. Excellent public health work appears to have contained the outbreak of Hantavirus by quarantining exposed people. Ebola, a very dangerous disease in fact, is probably more widespread than we know, but is unlikely to get here and be transmitted here, despite a late start in identifying this outbreak and lagging public health interventions, which will likely combine quarantine, travel restrictions and community education. Ebola is a very virulent disease, and easily transmissible, but is not known to spread through the air, so careful attention to sanitation and disinfection can usually control outbreaks. But poverty and politics have likely slowed the identification of and attention to this outbreak, which is likely to cause many unnecessary deaths before the combined work of public health authorities around the world get it under control.

Click here to read the rest of this article, originally published on What's Up Newport on May 29, 2026.