Although the world has watched the progress of an NBC News freelancer who was diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus and is recovering at a Nebraska hospital, Ashoka Mukpo’s parents said their son would likely rather the attention be paid to the West African countries that have been ravaged by the disease.

“He went there with the idea of shedding light on the pain and suffering that this epidemic has caused to the Liberian people and now the light is being shone on him for what’s going on, and I think he’s definitely uncomfortable with that,” Dr. Mitchell Levy, Mukpo’s father, said Tuesday. “I think he’s already thinking about rededicating his efforts to what comes next.” Read more

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife announced Tuesday they are donating $25 million to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control foundation to fight the Ebola crisis that has killed more than 4,440 people in west Africa. Read more

MADRID — The scene conveyed a First World precision: An elderly Spanish priest, stricken with Ebola in Liberia, arrived in Madrid on a special military jet. A helicopter buzzed overhead as ambulances transported him for treatment. Expressing confidence in the preparations, a Spanish health official said the risk of the virus spreading was “virtually nil.”

There was just one problem: the city’s infectious disease center had been mostly dismantled as part of a government cost-cutting plan and a temporary Ebola ward would have to be hurriedly constructed.

After the priest died on Aug. 12, the unit was closed again, and the same exercise repeated when a second Ebola-infected priest was airlifted from West Africa in September. He died two days later, and last week an auxiliary nurse who changed his diaper and helped clean his bed was found to have the disease. Read more