( CNN ) -- The tragedy of Ebola is not just its staggering toll . It 's also the implicit racism that the deadly virus has spawned . The anecdotes are sickening , particularly a Reuters report this week that children of African immigrants in Dallas -- little ones with no connection to Thomas Duncan , the Liberian Ebola patient who died Wednesday in a local hospital -- have been branded `` Ebola kids '' simply because of their heritage or skin color . In both the United States and Europe , Ebola is increasing racial profiling and reviving imagery of the `` Dark Continent . '' The disease is persistently portrayed as West African , or African , or from countries in a part of the world that is racially black , even though nothing medically differentiates the vulnerability of any race to Ebola . A Newsweek cover last month showed a picture of a chimpanzee with the headline : `` A Back Door for Ebola : Smuggled Bushmeat Could Spark a U.S . Epidemic . '' Whatever the intent , the picture was wrong . Turns out the story was probably wrong , too , as a Washington Post investigation revealed . The new Ebola outbreak `` likely had nothing to do with bushmeat consumption , '' the Post reported , and there is no conclusive evidence that Ebola has been passed from animals to humans . A theory on animal-to-human transmission with some limited traction centers on dead fruit bats , not chimps . `` There is virtually no chance that 'bushmeat ' smuggling could bring Ebola to America , '' the Post concluded . But the damage has been done . And as panic deepens , the danger is that racism -- on planes and public transportation , in lines , on streets , in glances -- deepens further , too . Ebola is a human tragedy , just like enterovirus D68 , which causes sudden muscle weakness and severe respiratory problems , particularly among children . It has shown up in almost all the 50 states , with about 500 Americans infected so far , far more than ever . And it has begun to kill , beginning with a 4-year-old boy in New Jersey . Five new cases were reported in New Jersey alone on Tuesday . And there are no antiviral vaccines or cures . Yet enterovirus D68 is known by a scientific name and number . ( Unfortunately for Africans , the Ebola virus was named after the Congolese river where the first outbreak was detected ) . The saga of Thomas Duncan reflects racial perceptions . His girlfriend , Louise , whom he had reportedly been visiting in Dallas , had publicly begged for him to be given the same experimental ZMapp medication given to two ( white ) American missionaries who were infected in Africa and recently flown back to the United States . `` I 'm just asking God and asking the American government for the same medicine they 're giving people that come from Liberia , '' she said during an interview with CNN 's Anderson Cooper . `` Please , please , please , please , help me save his life . ... Talk to doctors . They 'll find means to get a medicine to cure him . He 's so young . '' Louise refused to allow her last name to be used for fear of repercussions . Unfortunately , doctors and the pharmaceutical developer said there was no longer any ZMapp left for Duncan or any other victim . But the imagery that accompanied his plight lingers : Whites can be flown to the United States or Europe at any expense , while Africans are left to die unattended on the streets of Liberia or Sierra Leone . Or now , without ZMapp , in Dallas . `` It 's easy for the world -- the powerful world , who are largely non-African , non-people of color -- to ignore the suffering of poor , black people , '' Harvard Medical School professor Joia Mukherjee said on PRI 's `` The World '' last month . It 's easy , she said , to `` other-ize '' the Ebola crisis . Fear too often contorts morality and humanity . Complete coverage on Ebola .
Ebola is increasing racial profiling , says Robin Wright . The saga of Ebola victim Thomas Duncan reflects racial perceptions , Wright says . TL;DR A new study finds that the number of people who have been diagnosed with Ebola in West Africa has increased by more than 50 percent since last year.