You have to hand it to the Americans.

The Ebola epidemic in west Africa apparently started in a 2 year old child in Guinea. How the child came in contact with a sick animal is not known but the disease killed his mother and sister before spreading through funeral attendants to other villages and then to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Ebola pops up in Africa from time to time but this time it has spread over a much wider region and already killed 1000 people. Such is the terror of the disease that governments have enforced strict quarantine on entire villages, cutting them off from the world and probably causing death from starvation. The Finance Minister of Liberia, Amara Konneh writes how the disease is devastating the economies of already poor countries. Since there is no treatment or vaccine the only way to fight the disease is to contain it geographically so that it dies down. " Save for the two airports remaining open in Liberia, our borders have been closed, schools and markets shut, the movement of people restricted, affected areas quarantined and troops stationed on the streets. All of this means a virtual economic standstill," writes Mr Konneh. Even after the outbreak comes to an end these countries will need a lot of help for their economies to recover. Mr Konneh continues," For our economies to fully recover, we will continue to need access to foreign markets for our goods. New tariffs being imposed on African goods by the US and Europe because of stalled trade talks would be bleak news for an economy left reeling by Ebola." Western countries will try to blame India for the failure of the WTO talks at Geneva but they are squarely responsible for selfishly refusing to substitute the word ' or ' for a comma. The story of another viral epidemic originating in Africa, HIV vividly illustrates how western countries have constantly exploited this continent with threats and lies. How big pharma companies have tested drugs on the poor in Africa and then walked away has been captured in the novel ' The Constant Gardener ' by John Le Carre. However, to stay in business pharma companies have to make a profit on their investments and cost of production, so they avoid diseases which are very rare or are predominantly in poor countries where people cannot pay high costs of patented drugs. These are known as orphan diseases. The film ' Lorenzo's Oil ' told the story of a couple's relentless determination to save their son who had such an illness. And yet one American company was experimenting with a serum to treat Ebola. Two Americans who were given the serum recovered but a Spanish priest died. This is why the US is the richest country in the world. Because they are willing to invest in research out of intellectual curiosity without knowing whether they will make money. Like them or loathe them we have to admire their zeal for innovation.