The African Union (AU) Commission is to deploy a joint military medical personnel and civilian humanitarian mission to tackle the Ebola virus outbreak in parts of West Africa.

The Ebola epidemic tearing through western Africa is by far the deadliest known outbreak of the disease, yet the magnitude of the spread is believed to be severely underestimated.

Sierra Leone, battling a deadly outbreak of Ebola, passed a law on Friday that will see anyone harbouring a victim of the disease facing a two-year jail term.

Efforts by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to galvanize the entire nation for a massive curtailment of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country have received a major boost with the convocation of the Oil and Gas Industry Stakeholders Forum on the disease led by the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources and Board Chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Nigerians and West Africans alike are getting overwhelmed and disgusted with all the daily events  about the Ebola Virus (EBV) outbreak in the past few weeks in Nigeria and other West African countries and the innumerable human and financial toll. And although the fire-fighters approach to minimizing the damage is on, learning from this episode and making fundamental policy changes for the future is not only necessary but obligatory in order to front-end any future outbreak of this and other infectious and communicable diseases in this part of the world.