Don't simply conjecture that the virus has mutated to be airborne. That's highly doubtful -- frankly, the transmission to healthcare workers is simply due to poor training, equipment, and procedures.
I don't believe it has become airborne. However, how did the lead doctor for Sierra Leone get infected by Ebola and subsequently die? Of anyone in the country, if not the continent, he would have been the most prepared to deal with Ebola. If it were so hard to transmit, he, if anyone, should have avoided it. If he couldn't avoid it, what hope do other health workers have to avoid it?
It's poor facilities and lack of staff that leads to experienced professionals properly trained to catch the disease.
All it takes is a sliver or a sharp edge to compromise a suit. You can imagine working beyond overtime in a space suit in a hot shitty old hospital (or whatever passes for it) filled with death. The tiniest mistake can lead to infection, and in that environment there are far too many opportunities for tiny mistakes.
On BBC news a couple of weeks ago, there was some footage of lab workers in the effected area testing samples. They were wearing a plastic suit, heavy gloves, mask, and goggles.
About half way through the footage, one of them removes his goggles and rubs his eye, with a gloved hand. The glove is wet from one of the samples. I wondered if we just watched him kill himself.
Being the head of anything in Africa doesn't mean much. Heads of state have recently done such things as signing harsh anti-gay bills into law, and showering to wash off HIV.
