Ebola Virus Facts 2014
Some Ebola facts and possibilities about the virus, 2014.
The name for the Ebola virus is derived from the Ebola River due to the location of the first outbreaks in the mid-1970s. It Is being named an Ebola crisis because of the sheer number of people who have died since the outbreak.
Experts are telling people not to worry, that there’s almost no possibility the outbreak will spread to other countries. They’re saying that no other country will face the epidemic like the one being experienced in its country of origin.
But these same experts said the same thing about other epidemics and yet they spread from their country of origin. It only takes one person infected to spread the infection to countless others.
Many serious outbreaks, including Ebola, can spread like wildfire.
How easily? Imagine a theatre full of people. One of them is infected with Ebola but doesn’t yet know it.
He coughs and sprays droplets into the air, and these, in turn, are inhaled by the person in front of him, who opens his mouth to laugh at a funny scene in the show. And just like that, a pandemic is born.
Fact 1. Did you know there is more than one type of the Ebola virus – There are actually five.
Fact 2. It can take anywhere from 48 hours to three weeks before you notice any symptoms.
Fact 3. The long-term prognosis of surviving Ebola stands at a little over 10%.
Fact 4. There are numerous ways that you can contract the Ebola virus and many ways that it can be spread.
- Direct human contact is only one of the ways the virus is spread.
- Surfaces are the second way. The virus is tough enough to live on surfaces as long as 48 hours.
- The main way that the virus is spread is through human contact.
- Body fluids are how the virus is being spread so rapidly.
- Blood, sweat, saliva, urine, the list goes on and on.
It’s as simple as: if an infected person drinks from a cup and leaves a bit of their saliva on the side of the cup and you come in contact with it, you can contract the virus.
The main reason that the virus spreads so quickly with body fluids is that most people don’t realize at first that they are even sick.
Fact 5. Any item that’s been contaminated with the virus carries the potential of giving the virus to you.
- All it takes is for a person to touch a contaminated item and then rub his eyes or touch his finger to his mouth.
- Any open cuts on the skin can also be a way for the Ebola virus to get into the body if you touch an item that’s been contaminated.
- Soiled linens that someone with the virus has rested on can also be capable of spreading the virus.
Fact 6. Coming into contact with an infected animal is yet another way for the disease to be spread.
- One of the main culprits for spreading the virus is the fruit bat. When these animals bite another animal or another animal eats something that has the fruit bat’s infected saliva on it, the virus is spread.
Fact 7. Even if someone does survive the disease, there’s a potential that the once-infected person can still pass it on for up to just under 8 weeks.
One thing that the experts with this latest outbreak are trying to get people to grasp is that the Ebola virus spreads like wildfire, often outrunning any efforts to impede it because people with light symptoms are in contact with people who don’t have it yet.
So it becomes a vicious cycle, and it won’t end until the flow of people passing it to one another is somehow broken. But of course, the people who don’t have it often get it because the infected ones don’t always know that they are infected.
The 2014 Ebola Outbreak: Update on an Unprecedented Public Health Event by Dr. Francis, MD, DSc, is the Executive Director at Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases (GSID) in South San Francisco. – This is a Spine-chilling Video about Ebola Virus Facts 2014.
