If you could get ebola without direct contact with fluids, even while wearing hazmat, most of West Africa would be wiped out by now. Think about it. There was either a break in protocol, or they got it while being around people who they did not know had it.
I worry that a dangerous message is being sent, here. Ebola survives outside the body, even dried, for several days.
So ebola is also transfered by fomites - pens, handles, and worse, porous objects.
If that were not the case, simply consider the tight isolation of the ambulance by CDC, days later, even though it had received several typical between - patient cleanings.
Or check out the CDC's instructions for making Airplanes safe after exposure to ebola.
Semantics are misleading, ie, "direct contact with bodily fluids" is perceived to mean person to person/near contact, or getting a gooey glob on you. Not true.
This isn't as infectious as measles, but it's much much more infectious than AIDS.
Panicking is not helpful, but neither is a false sense of security that puts more people at risk.
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You can catch chicken pox if someone on aisle 9 in the grocery store has it and you are on aisle 8 and never even saw the person. Ebola requires direct contact with the body fluids of the infected person. It is nowhere near as contagious as some of the people on this thread are insinuating.
Just think about this. There have been over 3,000 deaths in Africa from this disease so far during the current outbreak. If someone could be infected as easily as many here are insisting, there should be HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS to millions dead ALREADY. It simply isn't the case.
Until someone explains why there aren't hundreds of thousands of dead in Africa ALREADY, given their medical system, their cultural behavior, their medical ignorance, their lack of supplies, etc., then they are not going to convince me I should be hiding in my home or that being in the same grocery store as an infected individual is going to result in infection. The evidence speaks loudly that this is not the case. It's one thing to be concerned, exercise precautions, demand better of our leaders in terms of immigration/travel policies, and quite another to be running around like Chicken Little making statements which are not backed up by evidence.
^^^^That has ZERO to do with how contagious it is. OF COURSE if they fail to contain it, it will continue to spread. The FACT remains that if it were as contagious as people are insisting, it would be wiping out the population in horrific proportions. IT IS NOT HAPPENING that way.
Its possible,I'll give you that.. but it also makes sense that if an infected person sneezes on a window sill and then patient a comes along puts hand on window sill then rubs eyes, nose etc those droplets could be transferred to the patient a...and from what I understand this can live up to 32 hours outside of a host. That in itself is scary.
Oh and most of West africa will be wiped out by the time this is all over.
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpr...fusing-volunteers-too-late-to-fight-outbreak/[/QUOTE
They are saying 1.5 million people infected by January. 6000 people infected per CDC.
I just added this-Liberia has been the worst hit by the disease, accounting for 1,830 deaths – 150 in the last two days alone.
IMO there should have been no planes arriving or departing in Liberia.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ebola-could-infect-one-half-million-soon-says-cdc-1467514
A million of cases by January 2015 is not horrific enough?
That is a straw man. Is this disease as easily spread as people are claiming? NO it is not. Of course if you do not contain (which Africa, for reasons stated is not doing) it will continue on its merry little way. Do you actually think the US will approach this disease in the way Africa has, with people burying their own dead, keeping CDC officials out of their towns, ignoring education as to the proper ways to handle the disease, refusing to allow CDC to identify and quarantine individuals? No, they will not.
Saying that ebola is as contagious as flu, chicken pox, or any other easily contracted disease does not make it so. Does that mean we don't worry about it? That we don't move immediately to contain, educate the public, etc.? That we take it for granted? Of course not. That doesn't mean we need to walk around blathering misinformation either and inciting panic citing "facts" that are patently false.
Second person in Dallas being monitored for Ebola:
http://www.whas11.com/news/Officials-Second-person-being-monitored-for-Ebola-277748751.html
DALLAS (GANNETT AFFILIATE) — Health officials are closely monitoring apossible second Ebola patient who had close contact with the first patient to be diagnosed in the U.S., the director of Dallas County's health department said Wednesday.
All who have been in close contact with the diagnosed patient are being monitored as a precaution, said Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.
"Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: The fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient," he said. "So this is real. There should be a concern, but it's contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment."
The director continued to assure residents that the public isn't at risk because health officials have the virus contained.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/01/us-health-ebola-usa-travel-idUSKCN0HQ4IY20141001The first patient diagnosed in the United States with an Ebola infection traveled from Liberia to Texas via Brussels, Canadian chief public health officer Greg Taylor said on Wednesday.