orters and denying licenses to those whom did not possess proper facilities and staff training. The mystery of how an African virus ended up in the Philippines is still unsolved, and the case is still under study.The CDC’s role in outbreak investigation has already lead them to send three medical scientists to Zaire to provide virus education within the hospital staff, and to provide advice and assistance in control and prevention, collect specimens for diagnostic testing, study the clinical course of the ill, and search for other possibly infected individuals. There is also a possible attempt to source the virus. In a recent interview, Dr. Frederick A. Murphy had expressed concern over CDC’s ability to respond to outbreaks and organize programs regarding infectious diseases, fundamentally due to poor financial status. He states that such programs "have been nibbled to death by inflation", subsequently leading to the loss of purchasing power by almost half. The CDC, along with other public health agencies, The National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, have published plans on what is needed to control new and emerging diseases more efficiently. The plans focus on improving surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, communication and education. However, as Dr Murphy stated, it is a pity that such good plans are constrained by tight budgets, which could probably get much worse.Thankfully, I have had no direct personal experiences with the Ebola virus. I still remember people going crazy over a book called "The Hot Zone"; I was unaware of it being about a virus called Ebola. It was only when a book called "Ebola: A Documentary Novel of its First Explosion" by William T. Close, M.D. hit the shelves that I actually sat up and took notice of the evil disease. The closest I have ever gotten to the virus is through the silver screen, when I watched the Ebola-associated film Outbreak when it was released several years ago...
