Two patients in Benin tested for Ebola, two patients in Canada tested

It's getting hard to keep track. Have we witnessed the beginning of a global pandemic that will roll over to a prophesied pestilence? Or will this Ebola sputter out and the world breathe a collective sigh of relief? (Until the next outbreak. Someday, one of the m will take).

Two days ago, Liberia declared a national emergency.

I mentioned day before yesterday that Nigeria is the latest nation to report Ebola patient illnesses and two deaths. Today, Nigeria declared a national emergency

The World Health Organization declared Ebola a global health threat today.

There have been 6 (or maybe 7) patients tested for Ebola in the United States. Three, Baltimore, Columbus Ohio, and NYC at Mt Sinai Hospital, were declared negative. The other three...the CDC won't say where they are.

Ebola Tested Across the Nation; Government Suppresses Info

A man who had traveled from Nigeria to Ontario Canada is being tested for Ebola because he evidenced flu like symptoms consistent with Ebola.

A patient at a hospital near Toronto has been placed in isolation as a precautionary measure after he came down with a fever and other flu-like symptoms following a recent trip to a country dealing with the Ebola outbreak. Dr. Eileen de Villa, an associate medical officer of health with Peel Region, said that the patient has a history of travelling to Nigeria. He is being kept in isolation at the Brampton Civic Hospital.

Benin reports two Ebola cases

Benin has reported two cases of the deadly Ebola virus in the west African country.  Health Ministry official Aboubacar Moufiliatou said that a man suspected to have contracted the virus had died.  "Fortunately, blood samples have been taken from the deceased patient to examine if his death was linked with Ebola," Moufililatou told the state television Thursday night.  He said another man has been quarantined after showing symptoms of the deadly virus after returning from the Nigerian city of Lagos.  "Blood tests from the suspected case will be conducted in laboratories approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) to confirm or deny the infection," he said.

Benin is adjacent to Nigeria to the west. It should be noted that status of the patients tested in the US have been declared negative, and the status of the two patients in Ontario and the men in Benin is still unknown. So far Ebola has been confirmed in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and a man traveling from Nigeria died in Saudi Arabia.

SARS...H1N1...Legionnaires... all are deadly virus outbreaks that fortunately did not turn out to be epidemics or pandemics. Ebola may die out now or it may spread.

At some point the pestilence will come, though. Revelation 6 and Luke 21 says so. Ebola was discovered in 1976. I remember the news about it and being horrified at the mortality rate, the way the disease kills, and the aura of exotic death surrounding it. Two years later Stephen King's book The Stand, considered his best, was published and became a runaway hit. The book depicted a global outbreak from a shifting antigen flu that killed 99.4% of the world population. King's ability to tell a story and the absolute realism in the rapid dismantling of society was very accurate. And scary. It affected me a lot.

As they say, malaria, measles and typhoid kills more people very day than all who have died in the current Ebola outbreak. But let's keep an eye on Benin, Ontario, and elsewhere. The necessity of witnessing to people who don't know their eternal destination is utmost.