Ebola is among the top three biggest healthcare worries in America today, with roughly one in six Americans seeing it as the nation’s top health problem. Fear of the disease ranks above the concern over cancer and obesity, despite just four individuals being diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S to date.

The Gallup poll asked Americans what the most urgent health problem facing the country is at this time, and healthcare costs and access are the only issues that cause more concern for Americans than Ebola. This is despite just four individuals having been diagnosed with the disease while in the United States since the outbreak began in West Africa almost eleven months ago. Ten people have been treated for the disease in the United States, most having contracted in Africa,with two dying from the disease. In October Liberian man Thomas Eric Duncan died in a Texas hospital, while earlier today Dr. Martin Salia, a US citizen who had been working in Sierra Leone, died in a Nebraska hospital.

The margin between the top three health concerns for Americans is minimal. While 17 per cent of Americans see Ebola as the biggest healthcare problem, 18 per cent see access to healthcare as more urgent and 19 per cent seeing affordable healthcare as the most urgent issue.

Source: Gallup.com

Cancer and obesity both ranked significantly further back, with ten per cent each. More than one third of adults (37 per cent or roughly 80 million) and 17 per cent of young people are obese in America. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be roughly 1.6 million new cases of cancer diagnosed in the United States in 2014.

The poll found that similar levels of men and women, and both younger and older Americans, feared Ebola. However the poll did find that the fear of the disease does appear to be related to education level. 22 per cent of adults who had ever attended college cited Ebola as the biggest problem, compared to just 11 per cent of those with a four year degree.

Although Ebola has gradually faded from the headlines in the past month it still remains a major fear for Americans, however Gallup also point to the similar scares over Bird Flu (2005), Bioterrorism (2001) and H1N1 (2009) that attracted large concern from the population before eventually fading out of the public’s consciousness. In 2001 America was gripped with fear over a potential anthrax attack, with 22 per cent seeing it as America’s biggest health concern, but this had dropped to just 1 per cent by the following year.