The manner and extent to which the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease has spread seems straight out of a disaster movie. An epidemic with a high fatality rate that was once confined to isolated rural pockets in Africa has now begun to show up in urban areas and crossed national frontiers on account of air travel. This virus which can be transmitted between humans through blood or other body fluids has no known antidote.

Airports across the world are on alert, while the World Health Organisation is meeting to decide whether Ebola should be declared an international crisis. The government has said that 44,700 Indians live in Ebola-affected countries. Indian airports need to be on alert and screen passengers coming from affected parts of the world. Health minister Harsh Vardhan says he is personally supervising preventive measures. These should include establishing diagnostic centres and testing facilities. Treatment centres and isolation wards too must be available if someone tests positive, while efforts need to be made to trace who they came in direct contact with.

The good news, however, is that no evidence has been found that the virus can spread through airborne transmission or through acts such as sneezing and coughing. Moreover symptoms are easily visible in infected persons (unlike HIV/AIDS where infected people can remain outwardly healthy while spreading disease). So even if there is no known cure at present, spread of the disease can be checked if effective measures are taken. However, most states have allowed public health systems to wither. A bird`s-eye view of health is a specialised calling and Harsh Vardhan should find a way to revive this dimension of healthcare. Improved public health and sanitation will help India tackle not only distant threats such as Ebola but everyday killers such as malaria, diarrhoea and typhoid.