Possibly true. Then again Africa is "AIDS central" for the planet and they have too much previous experience with Ebola, so of all the places on the planet, they're probably the most careful generally. Yes I'm sure there are specialized CDC facilities for special work where more extreme care is taken, I'm just guessing in general they're probably more paranoid about blood transmitted diseases than say your average rural Wisconsin fireman would be. (or edited to rephrase, if 170 docs die there, the percentage will likely be worse everywhere else)
Edited to add: Lots of paternalism in the responses. I live in an area that's never had an earthquake or hurricane yet I have a pretty good idea whats up. That's not because I'm white and Africans not being white therefore cannot read or draw analogies. Not cool guys, not cool at all. Docs in Africa are not necessarily stupid just because they're in Africa as some guy claims it on HN so all they have is Gilligans Island class knowledge and gear. I'm inclined to believe its the opposite, they know what they're doing, yet unfortunately of a population of the most qualified generalist personnel 170 got none the less got infected. That something sad and bad happened to them despite their abilities, doesn't mean those foreigners must therefore just be dumb and we'll be OK because we're a different race. Poverty does not necessarily equal stupidity. Reading and knowledge is getting cheaper every day. I don't buy an explanation based on middle ages era cultural outlook. That explanation (of ignorance, and poverty) would have actually worked in 1500. They just aren't that dumb, over there. That's what makes the statistics so bad.
As people have noted, "Africa" is not a single, uniform place, and contrary to your perception, none of these places have had an outbreak of Ebola, and Ebola is a rare enough disease that there really isn't institutional knowledge.
Western doctors handling outbreaks screw up with some degree of frequency - the simple volume of cases they're dealing with, combined with some low but non-zero chance of error means that infections like this are inevitable.
Rather than elaborate speculation about the virus mutating to an entirely new transmission path (with new cellular receptors, a built in way of dealing with mucosal immunity, a capsid capable of being suspended and transmitted in droplets, etc.) a much more reasonable explanation is this:
Humans screw up. Doctors are humans. Ergo, Doctors screw up.
This part of Africa has not been hit by Ebola before, so their medical etc. systems are not experienced with it. AIDS is pretty irrelevant since its transmission is much more constrained. As for your last point, try https://www.google.com/search?q=africa+reuse+disposable+need...
Edited to add: Lots of paternalism in the responses. I live in an area that's never had an earthquake or hurricane yet I have a pretty good idea whats up. That's not because I'm white and Africans not being white therefore cannot read or draw analogies. Not cool guys, not cool at all. Docs in Africa are not necessarily stupid just because they're in Africa as some guy claims it on HN so all they have is Gilligans Island class knowledge and gear. I'm inclined to believe its the opposite, they know what they're doing, yet unfortunately of a population of the most qualified generalist personnel 170 got none the less got infected. That something sad and bad happened to them despite their abilities, doesn't mean those foreigners must therefore just be dumb and we'll be OK because we're a different race. Poverty does not necessarily equal stupidity. Reading and knowledge is getting cheaper every day. I don't buy an explanation based on middle ages era cultural outlook. That explanation (of ignorance, and poverty) would have actually worked in 1500. They just aren't that dumb, over there. That's what makes the statistics so bad.