India, May 18 -- On April 24, a nurse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ituri province fell ill. The illness was confirmed as Ebola - a rare strain called Bundibugyo with no licensed vaccine or therapeutic and a 20-40% case fatality rate - three weeks later. By then, the virus had reached Kinshasa, and Goma, a city under rebel control; more than 90 people were dead. On May 17, WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern. The lag traces to a banal cause. The regional laboratory at the provincial capital was calibrated only for the Zaire strain that has caused every previous Congolese outbreak; so, samples had to travel 1,500 km to Kinshasa for confirmation. To be sure, this outbreak - by most expert assessmen...