I recently came across a blast from the past - 14 months ago I wrote a reply to an article about Ebola. And oddly I STILL think it is good advice, and applicable, even though the media is hardly uttering a peep about any "deadly plagues" but then again the cold and flu kills millions every year with hardly anything being said too.
So without further ado, here is what I wrote back then, with only a couple of edits for clarity:

Ebola or other infectious disease is bound to hit, and hit hard, in your area eventually. Black plague hard.

Modern hygiene practices and quarantine are the best defense for the population as a whole.
And they will help the individual prepper too- but not enough.
Eventually you will get something.
And the population as a whole tends to let quarantine and hygiene practices slip when financial conditions get worse- why worry about washing your hands when you are starving? Why would you voluntarily quarantine if it will cost you your job and home?
So the population will get it eventually.
Oddly enough - outside of expensive or experimental treatments, or hygiene and quarantine procedures, there are other things that can be done/taken to reduce the mortality rate for you-
1) be among the last to get it- viruses tend to mutate toward the less lethal as they go on. The first people to get SARs died. the last people to get SARs survived, the Spanish flu killed a smaller percent of the population with each wave.
2) be aware that epidemics come in waves. Be alert to these waves.
3) Over the counter medicines would seriously help those who have contracted Ebola. Most die of dehydration due to diarrhea and vomiting. Pepto, syrup of Ipapec, and Gatorade mix could potentially save these people.
4) Have a strong body and immune system- given the state of nutrition in most of the world this can be the hardest to achieve. Eating good wholesome foods, exercise, and _sleep_ .
I struggle with having good health myself, the more you can work on health now the better. One less onion ring or extra minute of exercise could take you past the worst of the epidemic to come.
5) Have illness prepared household goods. Garbage bags to store soiled linens, infected use (only) toilette, sanitizers, easy to prep and eat foods (soup!). You would be surprised how many garbage bags an ill family can go through. Don't forget the easy to access medical supplies, since you don't want to be climbing stepstools while cramping and dizzy.
6) Also don't forget a setup that allows your house to support life without much maintenance for at least a few weeks! It would suck to freeze to death because you were too sick to stoke the wood stove (back up propane heater?), or fetch the water from the well (get gravity cistern?) .

7) Have easy to implement plans so you can provide all the essentials of life without hardly having to get out of bed. food water trash cans, etc., that can be positioned at the bedside.

If you have survived a serious infection/illness and have anything to add or critique, please comment or notify me.

Someone was pointing out how long the Egyptian and Chinese empires lasted, as an example of sustainable societies on the comments of one of the blogs I occasionally follow.

I thought about it a bit, and realized that they can not work for a model for a sustainable global or even national civilization in our current world for a number of reasons:
China and Egypt went through repeated periodic famines and various other upheavals, they both were made into part of more aggressively growing empires during Western Europe's age of colonization. They suffered this indignity due to their technological and military retardation.
They survived as long as they did largely because the culture, and technology were stagnant, and those in charge had control of key essentials for life (usually water).
Sustainable growth means population control - something very few modern countries do well. Western Civilization actually has a declining native born population over the past 20+ years or so- likely due to the best thing ever for population control; namely the education of women and empowerment of same (the pill helps less than education according to several studies IIRC).
China has also achieve low to no population growth but only through truly draconian and harsh methods.
Unfortunately those same 'western civilization' countries not only allow but are actively encouraging immigration without getting those immigrants to culturally integrate/merge with them. This is probably due to the need for economic "growth" for the moneyed interests (you cant pay a compounding interest debt if every 'dollar' is borrowed into interest without some form of "growth".) Thus these countries will eventually demographically return to population growth if they do not convert their immigrants culture (mind you it will be growth of a different culture inside their borders, not to dissimilar to what the Germanic tribes did inside Rome before its sack and fall). And China faces the high likelihood of internal revolution fed by their own draconian measures.
Having an aggressively advancing technological base *and* a sustainable infrastructure with controlled population growth is something I cant recall a successful historical example of. Please educate me if I am wrong.
But that (technological growth, population and resource use flat or minimal growth) is what we as a species specifically need globally to avoid future extinction on this planet...

Or we need to leave the planet and make use of space resources - but that has its own significant hurdles.