The thing in the picture above is an Ebola virus, and it has many of my students pooping their pants right now. Well, probably not right this second, but there has been some general loosening of a particular sphincter muscle over the idea that Ebola will come and claim their young lives in a rather horrible way. In this post I hope to pass on a bit of knowledge that will hopefully help you and others to understand what Ebola is and what it can do. I'll let you decide when and if you need to begin wetting yourself.
First off, Ebola is a filovirus which simply means that it is shaped like a thread. It has a characteristic "shepherds crook" at one end which gives it a rather unique look - a rather long, skinny structure with a loopy thing at the end. It causes a hemorrhagic fever which is a fancy way of saying that it has a relatively disturbing habit of causing a massive amount of bleeding which eventually leads to death. How it works is sort of fascinating, but I think I'll skip that bit for now and instead talk about other things.
At the top of the list of questions people want answered is "How can I get it?" or, to put it a different way, "How can I avoid getting it?" It is actually rather easy to avoid getting it because Ebola is transmitted in a very specific way. Since this virus tends to hang out in the bloodstream, you generally have to get Ebola laden blood into your bloodstream. This is often referred to as "blood to blood contact". It has been shown that Ebola can also be found in the sweat, tears, saliva, breast milk, and semen of infected people and it is therefore possible for it to be passed along through those fluids. Those fluids still need to get into your body, however, so unless you are touching, cleaning, or otherwise handling a person with Ebola or the body of a person who died from Ebola, you are not going to get it. And if you are planning on touching, cleaning, or otherwise handling a person with Ebola or the body of a person who died from Ebola, wear protective clothing to avoid getting it. A good rule to follow in Ebola outbreaks is if it is wet and not yours then don't touch it. Come to think of it, this is a pretty good rule to follow even when there is not an Ebola outbreak.
Additionally, Ebola cannot be transmitted through the air. Sure, if someone is violently coughing or vomiting they may spread droplets of fluid into their immediate surroundings - normally no more than 3-4 feet from their body - but the virus still needs to be in a fluid to be transmitted. So the idea of a single carrier of Ebola on the subway in New York infecting an entire subway car is not going to happen. Oh, and one more thing, a person is only contagious when they are showing symptoms of the disease, and since Ebola is rather debilitating, it is highly unlikely that someone who is sick with it will be walking around after they start showing symptoms. So, to sum up, Ebola is rather difficult to catch.
Unless, of course, you aren't aware of what it is or how it is spread. The main reason it is a problem in Africa is that people are generally unaware of how to avoid getting sick, and when they do get sick the medical facilities are often poor or nonexistent. Without proper protective clothing the people who are dealing with the sick or dead often become infected themselves. So when a person who is wearing little or no protective gear transports or handles an Ebola victim they are likely to get the disease themselves. This is what contributes to the outbreaks in Africa. People who are unaware of the disease or how to avoid getting it are coming in direct contact with those who have died from it. They don't know what precautions to take and the virus spreads.
But what happens when an infected person leaves their country in Africa and travels to the United States? Aren't we all at risk?
The answer is typically "no". As mentioned before, if the person is able to walk around he or she is not infectious. When they do show symptoms they can easily be quarantined in a hospital and treated only by those wearing protective gear. Anyone that they came in contact with can be monitored to see if symptoms show up and then quarantined should they become sick. It is incredibly unlikely that an outbreak of Ebola would ever cause massive problems here because we are aware of how to avoid getting it and we know what to do with people who have it. Basically, don't touch a person who is showing symptoms of Ebola and you will be fine. The only way Ebola could become a problem in the United States is if it became airborne, which, as we will examine in another post, is incredibly unlikely.
So to answer the question in the title of this post, I'd wait a while before you start wetting yourself.
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