The chief of the United Nation's ebola mission is warning that there is a chance that the disease could evolve and become airborne, creating a "nightmare scenario."
The Telegraph reports:
There is a ‘nightmare’ chance that the Ebola virus could become airborne if the epidemic is not brought under control fast enough, the chief of the UN’s Ebola mission has warned.
Anthony Banbury, the Secretary General’s Special Representative, said that aid workers are racing against time to bring the epidemic under control, in case the Ebola virus mutates and becomes even harder to deal with.
"The longer it moves around in human hosts in the virulent melting pot that is West Africa, the more chances increase that it could mutate," he told the Telegraph. "It is a nightmare scenario [that it could become airborne], and unlikely, but it can’t be ruled out."
He admitted that the international community had been "a bit late" to respond to the epidemic, but that it was "not too late" and that aid workers needed to "hit [Ebola] hard" to rein in the deadly disease.
