What You Need To Know About The Ebola Outbreak

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by BEN SHAPIRO

With reports that two Americans have now been diagnosed with the Ebola virus while working to help Africans in Liberia, Western focus has shifted to the dangers of an Ebola outbreak. According to Samaritan’s Purse, the group for which both Americans work, doctor Kent Brantly contracted Ebola and then isolated himself; Nancy Writebol, an employee of Serving in Mission, was helping Ebola patients as well when she was infected.
 
The World Health Organization, according to CNN.com, has measured the current outbreak in West Africa as the “deadliest ever,” including at least 1,093 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. CNN states, “Of the 1,093 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, 660 people have died.”
 
So, here’s what you need to know about Ebola:
 
Transmission. Scientists speculate that original outbreaks come from human-animal contact. The World Health Organization states:
 
Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
 
While Ebola transmission is not airborne, according to the Centers for Disease Control, it can be transmitted by “direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person,” as well as “exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected secretions.” That is why medical personnel are in a more dangerous position than members of the general public – they routinely deal with bodily fluids. As the CDC notes, Exposure to ebolaviruses can occur in health care settings where hospital staff are not wearing appropriate protective equipment, such as masks, gowns, and gloves.” Ebola can be spread via semen for up to 7 weeks, according to WHO.

 
USA Today reports that according to Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infection Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, “Ebola is actually much harder to spread than respiratory infections, such as influenza or measles. Those viruses pose a much greater threat on a plane or in any confined space.”
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