
How contagious is ebola? - rdlecler1
I saw this article on NPR<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;health&#x2F;2014&#x2F;10&#x2F;02&#x2F;352983774&#x2F;no-seriously-how-contagious-is-ebola<p>and I&#x27;m having trouble reconciling this with the fact that health care workers seem to be so easily infected. I can&#x27;t imagine that HIV is transmitted to health care workers this easily otherwise they&#x27;d be wearing hazmat suits.
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arshadgc
Agreed! There's a total disconnect between what we hear from people looking to
ease public anxiety and what we see and learn on the news.

It's actually so contagious that even taking off your hazmat suit incorrectly
can get you infected. That's because the virus can live for some period on
surfaces, and that's the reason why doctors use a buddy system to remove their
protective gear. It's also the reason houses, vehicles, and hospital rooms
have to be decontaminated after an ebola victim passes through.

According to the World Health Organization: "People can be exposed to Ebola
virus from direct physical contact with body fluids like blood, saliva, stool,
urine, sweat etc. of an infected person and soiled linen used by a patient."

So, touch an ebola victim's bedsheets and you can get the disease. That's why
it's so alarmingly contagious. It is NOT like AIDS and it probably IS
something we should worry about. In this case, public paranoia might actually
save lives.

Here's the link to the WHO site: [http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-
programmes/dpc/epidemi...](http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-
programmes/dpc/epidemic-a-pandemic-alert-and-response/epr-
highlights/3648-frequently-asked-questions-on-ebola-hemorrhagic-fever.html)

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mudwort
Why are we sending people to work with ebola patients ? Consider these facts:

1\. Protective suits and safety protocols have limited success. 2\. The WHO
says the average Ebola survival rate is about 50 percent. 3\. The number of
recent Ebola cases are believed to exceed 8000. 4\. Ebola survivors are
believed to be immune to future infection.

Therefore thousands of immune people are already onsite. Shouldn't our efforts
be focused on training and supplying the survivors?

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jere
I feel similarly. A lot of people in the media are blowing it off and making
it seem like it's _so easy_ to avoid infection.

Glenn Beck made a song about Ebola with advice including "Don’t lick vomit off
the street." Sure, it's Glenn Beck writing a stupid song, but I get the same
reaction from other places. Stephen Colbert interviewed an infection
specialist who said, "The only way to get infected is to touch that blood
barehanded or smear it on your face."

Technically true I suppose, but the implication is that only crazy people
could contract this. It's clearly not true. Healthcare workers make up _10%_
of the deaths in this outbreak.

And this article you posted isn't reassuring at all. The graph at the top
appears comforting, until you read the footnote:

> __The R0 is integrated over the time that a person is infectious to others.
> For HIV, this could be years. But for Ebola, that time is only about a week.
> So even though they have similar R0s, Ebola 's infections per unit of time
> is much higher than HIV's.

So you should expect the number of cases to double roughly ever week? Super.
Looking at the WHO estimates, it's closer to once a month (1 week contagious +
21 day incubation period I suppose), but that's still pretty terrifying, since
20 more months at that rate would be the world's population. _To be clear_ ,
I'm not making any claims about how this will play out, but only demonstrating
bewilderment at how that article is supposed to be reassuring.

I'm willing to accept the claims that our healthcare system can easily contain
this, but I really don't understand the sentiment that it's not very
contagious.

~~~
adventured
A simple conceptual question I've had about Ebola: a person that is contagious
goes to the grocery store, uses a cart, pushes the cart around with sweat /
cough / saliva on their hands; I then use the cart within a reasonably short
time after, and proceed to rub my eyes randomly or touch my face near my
mouth.

How high risk are normal scenarios like that? I can't seem to find any great
answers, and Ebola seems to be a little bit easier to get than is being let
on.

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atom-morgan
This article definitely seems to think it's more contagious than what the CDC
believes: [http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-
perspective/2014/09/commentar...](http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-
perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-
protection-ebola)

~~~
Someone1234
Your summation of that article is a little overblown. They say "we really have
no idea, so let's be very careful." Plus what the CDC tells medical personal
and what the CDC tells the public aren't synonymous.

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deadfall
On NPR radio this morning with doctors answering questions about the issue.
Some doctors say that the only way to contract it is by body fluids and then
through going in open abrasion, mouth, and etc. They also say that is could
potentially be caught within a radius of 3 feet, but there still is not a lot
of research.

On VICE they went to ground zero and showed the epidemic up close. They always
had to wash their hands with chlorine.

A side note, they are putting Ebola testing check points in five different US
International Airports. This seems a little worrisome because I believe these
Airports could be easily bypassed.

In honesty, as an American, I am not too worried about contracting it here.

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loqqus
Given the rate at which it has spread, and that health care workers who should
be the best informed on how to avoid it have still contracted the disease, I
would say it's pretty darn contagious.

Don't trust govt agencies and their lapdog media to tell you the truth about
it. (Should go without saying.)

I'm finding it pretty interesting to watch it play out on my site here. For
instance you can see today people are tweeting about the first suspected case
in Brazil: [http://loqq.us/E](http://loqq.us/E)

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chrisBob
My understanding is that ebola is not contagious until you show symptoms, but
then it becomes very contagious. In this case bodily fluids even includes
sweat which makes infection from casual contact much more likely than most
other diseases.

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echolima
Back when I was a FF/Paramedic I worried more about Hep C and MRSA. That being
said, I am really glad not to be on the "front line" anymore. I feel for my
brothers and sisters as they start to face this.

