The largest and deadliest outbreak of Ebola on record is continuing to run rampant across the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. So far over 600 people have died.

The Ebola virus—which has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent—has also been contracted by two Americans who were treating Ebola patients. With an incubation period ranging anywhere from a few days to three weeks, experts fear the infection may be taking hold beyond the borders of the three West African nations.

Nigeria has reported one case of Ebola already. The disease traveled across at least three countries before it was detected in Nigeria. If it could get onto a flight there, it could just as easily travel farther abroad. The jump to Nigeria has health experts talking about the possibility of the virus landing in the United States or elsewhere. U.S. President Barack Obama has already been briefed on the threat.

With no licensed treatment or vaccine available, a long incubation period and an infection that spreads by simple contact, the threat of the virus escaping Africa and visiting the shores of the Western world is a distinct possibility.

Research into a cure has been pursued only out of fear of the virus being used in a biological terrorist attack. But so far, no cure exists.

Experts are saying it could be many months before the outbreak is completely contained. But will it be? Now that the virus is in Nigeria—Africa’s most populous nation—there is cause for concern.

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Experts say the disease traces back to bats. These small winged mammals are a delicacy in West Africa, and the virus is transferred to humans when infected bats are eaten. The government in Guinea even banned the consumption of bats in an attempt to stop the spread. The problem remains that many portions of the population refuse to adhere to health laws laid down by the state.

However, an authority greater than Guinea also forbids the eating of bats: the Bible (Leviticus 11:19).

As Trumpet writer Anthony Chibarirwe stated in an April 3 article on the Ebola outbreak, “Could these health laws have been made known to man for the purpose of preventing crises like the Ebola pandemic in West Africa?” It is not the bats, but rather those who eat them, that are putting the world at risk of a serious epidemic.

The Ebola crisis is growing. For a better understanding of the laws of clean and unclean foods, and how adherence to this law could drastically change your own health and wellbeing today, read out three-part series, “We Are What We Eat.”