It's easily one of the scariest bits of news to emerge in quite some time, specifically, the outward spread of the Ebola virus from its origins in Africa to the United States and beyond. For those who follow the news about this particular topic, it's easy to get concerned, and even lose track of where it's been spotted, and who's survived...or not, as the case may be. But a new tool has emerged to help regular users keep better track of where Ebola is, and where it isn't, in the form of EbolaScan.com.

EbolaScan.com is a comparatively simple tool, a website and mobile app available at no charge to users that not only keeps track of the various news items surrounding Ebola via the included News Timeline (News - Alert) system, but also maps out sightings of the Ebola virus to let users tell, at a glance, where infections have struck. That allows people to make better plans concerning responses to Ebola developments, whether those be reducing the amount of travel made or changing destinations or even just staying home for a while and staying out of the line of potential infection.

Moreover, users can even have alerts sent to a mobile device based on how close the reports are to a user's home area, ranging from 150 miles to anywhere in the United States, so further modifications can be made to travel plans or the like. The founder of EbolaScan, John McKinley, described how the EbolaScan system was created out of a desire to better track the path of an oncoming infection, and how many “infection hot spots” had “local origins”. McKinley elaborated, saying “Our team found it really frustrating to filter through the massive amount of stories about Ebola to find out the latest case information near us, so we decided to solve the problem. We are all in this together, so we also wanted to draw upon concerned U.S. residents to help ensure we have the latest Ebola case data to share.  As such, the service is powered by a crowd-sourced model of new case submission, where anyone can submit a new news story to our team to review and add to our case database.”

There's a certain benefit to this kind of proactive awareness, because it allows the user to make informed decisions. Right now, EbolaScan shows three places with Ebola currently active in the United States: Omaha, Dallas and Atlanta, mostly at hospitals where those who were in Africa were recently brought for treatment. But diseases are unpredictable, and often show up in places no one would expect, so keeping an eye on something like this is a smart idea that will likely be well-received by concerned parents or the like who may find reason to keep the kids out of school. With cold and flu season afoot, and more people spending more time indoors in forced-air heating environments, there's a particular reason to have at least some concern. EbolaScan is both free and easy to use, which makes checking it a fairly smart idea to track the movement of this horrific disease.

Hopefully, any issues with Ebola will be limited in scope and fade away quickly, as the disease finds fewer potential hosts. But there's always something to be said for a reasoned response, and EbolaScan helps users get the information necessary to generate a reasoned response and take personal healthcare issues more seriously overall.