Ebola: a call to action

The following editorial appears in the September issue of Nature Medicine. The size, speed and potential reach of the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa presents a wake-up call to the research and pharmaceutical communities—and to federal governments—of the continuing need to invest resources in the study and cure of emerging infectious diseases. At the time of this writing, more than 2,200 people are estimated to have been infected by a new strain of Zaire ebolavirus in four West African.