I think the point is that this disease has been a serious problem for a very long time and it's only now that "western medicine" has taken an interest in being able to "study in follow up."
Really? If there is such an need to study it, and follow it up, and treat the health care workers who are most important - why in the world didn't we fly one of the world's leading experts on Ebola to the US for treatment or send a team out to treat him?
I don't notice US experts involved in treating the Spanish priest, although they did send the experimental drug for his treatment (in any event, he died.)