The United States Peace Corp and some NGOs are pulling volunteers and their families out of three West African countries where the Ebola outbreak has killed hundreds of people.  It comes with the growing realization that the outbreak is not something that can be handled by volunteers and will require the mobilization of the international community.

The Peace Corp said it has “and will continue to closely monitor the outbreak of the virus in collaboration with leading experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of State,” according to a statement.

The agency came to its decision when two workers were quarantined after coming in contact with a patient who later died of Ebola disease.  Health officials in the UK and Hong Kong revealed they tested two airline passengers from the West African region for signs of the disease. 

Another traveler wound up in a hospital emergency room in Charlotte, North Carolina, in America’s southeast.  It set off quite a panic, but the patient tested negative for Ebola.  Across town in Charlotte, a religious missionary group coincidentally said it was removing some 70 spouses, children, and other non-medical staff from West Africa.

“This is a growing crisis of proportions that will cost, we think, thousands of lives and maybe more,” said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, a missionary group helping Ebola patients in Liberia.  “The international community has the resources and people to respond, but they need to respond.”

Ebola has killed 672 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.  One US citizen working for the Liberian government died after flying to Nigeria, and he was only a week or two from flying to Minneapolis, Minnesota to visit his family in America. 

Liberia is closing schools and quarantining some communities to stop the potential spread of Ebola.  Non-essential government workers will be sent home for 20 days and the army deployed to enforce the measures.  And President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared Friday, 1 August a non-working holiday to allow the disinfection of all public facilities.  Cleaning with a simple solution of bleach and water can limit Ebola’s spread.

Ebola is spread by bodily fluids, and by causing a hemorrhagic fever; patients produce a lot of them to spread.  There is no vaccine, no cure, and this particular strain is fatal in about 60 percent of cases.