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So far, North America has been lucky. Community acquired infections of avian   influenza have not yet occurred, although an imported case of H5N1 was identified in Alberta Canada in 2013 and two imported cases of H7N9, a husband and wife, were reported from British Columbia in just this past week. Because of recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5 subtypes) in wild birds and domestic flocks in North America, the Center for Disease Control has issues guidance for health care workers for identifying and testing patients with potential avian influenza infections. As of January 31, 2015, no H5 subtype human avian influenza infections have been recorded from these outbreaks which have been reported from six western states along the Pacific Flyway (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and California ). ( link ) CDC document: Interim Guidance on Testing, Specimen Collection, and Processing for Patients with Suspected Infection with Novel Influenza A Viruses with the P...

Through October   12, 2014, the World Health Organization   (WHO) has reported more than   8900 cases of Ebola since this epidemic began   ( link ).   The outbreak is currently out of control in three countries in West Africa, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.   The graph below depicts the timeline of the growth of the   cumulative number of total cases reported by   each of these countries.     The overall cumulative Ebola case total time series can be fitted to an exponential growth curve to project the total number of cases going into the future. The WHO data indicate that by January   2015 there will be almost 45,000 Ebola cases as shown in the graph below.   There is no doubt now that this outbreak will not be contained in West Africa by the end of December.   How many future cases of Ebola will there be is difficult to predict. WHO has noted on several occasions that the officially reported numbers under represent...

The Ebola epidemic in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone continues to grow. As depicted in the graph below,  there have been erratic increases in the number of new Ebola cases in these counties since week number 20 (starting May 11, 2014). The next graph below, based on the average number of new Ebola cases per week, indicates that the longer term statistical trend in the number of cases is continued exponential increase. The variability in case data from these three countries for week numbers 37 and 38 suggests that local public health officials in these countries can no longer accurately track and count Ebola cases.  Without international support there is no reason to expect that the infection rate will decline any time soon in these countries. Graph notes: The data used in this graph are derived from World Health Organization and are current through September 16, 2014.  Only cases from the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra...