Top Ebola scientist points to funerals in disease spread

c. 2014 Religion News Service

LONDON (RNS) Touching or kissing the corpses of Ebola victims at funerals is helping to spread the deadly virus, according to one of the world’s top scientists who was among the first to identify Ebola in 1976.

Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said worsening conditions in West Africa contribute to a “perfect storm,” including a growing population, decades of civil war, widespread government corruption, dysfunctional health systems, and a growing distrust in Western medicine.