Watching a media report online I was quite surprised to hear the World Health Organization state they were frustrated by Nigerian government refusing to release the names of other passengers on a flight with a visibly contagious Ebola Patient. Here’s the backstory of why this specific outbreak is so potentially scary:

UPDATE:  The Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer was a U.S. Citizen (details below).

Quartz.Com […] last week’s developments could transform this outbreak from an unusually nasty regional epidemic to something much bigger.
On Jul. 24, Nigerian authorities confirmed that a Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer, had collapsed in Lagos after flying there from the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and tested positive for Ebola; Sawyer died on the night of July 24-25.
This is alarming. So far, Ebola has been confined to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia—war-torn and largely rural west African countries. But Lagos is different; not only is it Africa’s biggest city, with 21 million people. It’s also one of the world’s most densely populated. And perhaps scariest of all, it’s a center for international travel—meaning that if it’s not contained, the virus could easily go global. Sawyer’s was the first-ever recorded case of Ebola in Nigeria, according to the Nigerian Tribune.
So far, the Nigerian government’s efforts to contain it inspire little confidence. The World Health Organization says that Sawyer, who worked for the Liberian finance ministry, turned himself in to Nigerian health authorities after he began vomiting and having diarrhea in the middle of the three-hour flight from Monrovia to Lagos. Nigeria’s health minister says authorities are currently trying to track down an unspecified number of the 100 or so other passengers on the flight.
This might be tricky. The 35 Nigerian co-passengers took flight once word got out that the health ministry was supposed to have quarantined them, prompting the federal government to launch a manhunt to track them down, reports Sunday Newswatch, a Nigerian newspaper, citing a federal security agent. The government has only now begun screening passengers arriving from foreign countries for the virus, according to the Tribune. (read more)

The Daily Beast has another interesting story with details from a CDC press conference yesterday:

[…]  Stephan Monroe, Deputy Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC, began the call by confirming that the Ebola outbreak is the worst in history. Since March of this year, he said, more than 1,201 people in three different West African countries have been infected, resulting in more than 672 deaths. “This is a rapidly changing situation,” said Monroe. “We do expect more cases in the coming weeks and months.” For this reason, the CDC says its response will be more of a “marathon” than a sprint.
Defined by the CDC as “a hemorrhagic fever….native to several African countries,” Ebola first reared its ugly head in Africa in 1976 with simultaneous cases in Sudan and the Congo. A vaccine has not yet been discovered. Symptoms of the disease, which has anywhere from a 50-90 percent mortality rate, can appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure and include headache, fever, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and lack of appetite.
Less commonly, those infected with Ebola display a rash, red eyes, cough, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and bleeding inside and outside of the body. There is no specific treatment beyond what the CDC calls “supportive therapy”—which centers on intravenous fluids and oxygen.  (continue reading)

*UPDATE* The Ebola victim who sparked fears that a historic outbreak of the disease could spread globally was an American citizen, it was revealed last night.

Patrick Sawyer died this week after becoming noticeably ill on a flight from Liberia in West Africa, where the worst ever outbreak of Ebola is gathering pace, to the city of Lagos in Nigeria.

His case sparked alarm across the globe because he was able to board an international flight while carrying the incurable disease – potentially infecting other passengers who could fly across the world in a nightmare scenario for health experts.
Indeed, the specter of Ebola arriving on America’s doorstep became real today with as it was revealed Patrick Sawyer was due to return home to Coon Rapids, Minnesota in August.
Sawyer, 40, died in Nigeria after traveling from Liberia, and his death has health workers scrambling to trace those who may have been exposed to him across West Africa, including flight attendants and fellow passengers.
His devastated wife, Decontee Sawyer, 34, shudders when she thinks how close Sawyer came to returning home to the States for his daughters’ birthdays carrying the dreaded virus.
‘It’s a global problem because Patrick could’ve easily come home with Ebola,’ Decontee said. ‘Easy. Easy. It’s close, it’s at our front door. It knocked down my front door.’ (read more)