Ebola: Separating 5 Facts From

The Myths
By now, everyone in the world has heard of the disease, Ebola, which seems to be taking parts of Africa by storm
resulting in multiple deaths and large areas of quarantine.
Currently, there are two affected doctors who were in Africa and are now back in the United States receiving
treatment, which has caused some uproar and misconceptions about this potentially global pandemic.
It is important that the facts about Ebola are separated from the myths in order to be better educated. As Dr. Fukuda,
WHO assistant director-general for health security has stated, It is not mysterious. It can be stopped.
1) Ebola is a virus. This means that typical antibiotics that would kill a bacterial infection will not work against it.
Unfortunately, current antiviral medications such as those against HIV, hepatitis C or herpes do not work either.
There are currently experimental drugs being used but they are limited in quantity and research at this time.
2) Symptoms of the Ebola virus are similar to the flu. Infected individuals typically have high fevers, nausea,
vomiting and diarrhea. This loss of fluids alone can lead to electrolyte imbalance, dehydration and death.
Additionally, the virus itself affects the lining of the blood vessels which can cause hemorrhaging (bleeding out) in
about half of those affected.
Keep in mind that everyone with flu-like symptoms does NOT have Ebola.
3) Ebola is transmitted through contact with body fluids. This means someone would have had to directly come
in contact with an infected person who had been to Africa or had personally been to Africa themselves.
As many airlines and international programs, including Doctors Without Borders, and the Peace Corps are removing
their representatives there, the likelihood of being allowed entrance into the affected regions is extremely limited.
Those looking to leave the area are being screened and often kept in isolation until it is determined that they are
symptom-free.

4) There are five strains of the Ebola virus. A person who survives an Ebola infection is thought to be immune to
that particular strain but is still susceptible to the other four strains.
Two of the strains, Zaire ebolavirus and Sudan ebolavirus, are reportedly more deadly than the other three, which are
Ta Forest ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus and Bundibugyo ebolavirus.
If an infected person can get medical support including proper re-hydration (while staying in isolation so as to not
infect others) and survive beyond the initial two weeks of symptoms, their odds of survival improve greatly.
5) The problem lies within the lack of appropriate medical facilities, supplies, medications, support, and the
misinformation circulating in those areas. There are reports that infected individuals do not seek medical care as
they do not want to go into isolation or be around others with Ebola.

This opens up the opportunity for immediate transmission to friends and family who come in contact with them while
sick, thus passing on the virus. Those who seek medical care may not get the help they need due to a lack of
resources.
For more information, follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization
(WHO) websites for up-to-date and accurate information.

Brooks, M. (2014). WHO Declares Ebola a Global Public Health Emergency.

Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/829629
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Keeping Ebola in Check: Advice from the CDC.
Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/829611
King, J., and Cunha, B. (2013). Ebola Virus Infection.
Retrieved from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/216288-overview

Myth

The average death rate for every outbreak is 90%.

While there was one region where the average death rate was 90%, there have also been cases of it
being as low as 25%. The mean average of each outbreak is much lower than 90%.
The outbreak of Ebola virus centered in West Africa is frightening
for many reasons. It is the largest outbreak ever, having claimed
thousands of lives; and the deadly infectious disease can travel
easily from person to person in the later stages.
On September 30, 2014, the first Ebola case diagnosed in the
United States was reported, and on October 8 the patient died of
the illness. It was in Dallas, at the Texas Health Presbyterian
Hospital, confirms the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, (CDC). On October 11, a second U.S. case was
diagnosed, a nurse who cared for the first patient at the same
hospital. Among earlier confirmed U.S. Ebola cases were two
Americans who returned already ill from West Africa for treatment
at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. They were treated
and released, virus free.
In a Gallup poll of over 1,000 Americans taken on Oct 5, 2014,
one fifth were worried about contracting Ebola. Still, the chances

you'll be exposed to Ebola in the United States are very low

because of the tight infection control practices of public health
workers here.
CDC workers are taking steps to identify anyone who may have
been in contact with the first patients with Ebola, who were
hospitalized in Texas. Health workers are stepping up infection
control practices that will include isolating any of the patients'
contacts who may become ill.
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In the two previous cases in the United States, the patients were
kept at a unit at Emory that has very high security for infectious
disease, says Amar Safdar, MD, an associate professor in the
Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at NYU Langone
Medical Center in New York. Only people who are allowed to
see them could be potentially exposed, says Dr. Safdar. Those
people are using protective gear and procedures that are
effectively fail-proof, he says.
Tom Frieden, MD, director of the CDC, stressed in a public
statement that the situation here in the United States, where
health care systems are strong, will be far different from the
experience in West Africa. He noted that he has no doubts about
the ability to contain Ebola here.
Meanwhile, public health officials are working hard in West Africa
to contain the disease and prevent its spread. Researchers
around the world are looking for ways to prevent and treat Ebola
by searching for a vaccine and a cure. The first human safety
tests of a new trial vaccine are underway, developed with the
U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Here are 10 essential facts about Ebola that may ease your fears:
1. The current Ebola outbreak is most widespread and
intense in West Africa.
The countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, have reported
8,376 cases of Ebola as of October 10, 2014, according to the
World Health Organization (WHO). An additional 24 cases were
reported in the countries of Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, and the
United States, as well as 71 cases in the Democratic Repubic of
the Congo. The first case confirmed within the United States, was
in a person who had travelled from West Africa to Dallas, and

died of the illness. A nurse who cared for him fell ill at the same
hospital, and was diagnosed with Ebola on Oct 11. People who
are most at risk are those in close physical contact with an
infected person, like family members and the healthcare workers
taking care of the patient.
2. Travel warnings have been issued for Guinea, Liberia, and
Sierra Leone.
Because of the increasing numbers of Ebola cases in these West
African countries,the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention advises against all nonessential travel to these
countries while the Ebola outbreak is ongoing.
3. Main entry points to the United States screen for Ebola
cases.
Five major U.S. international airports will now screen patients
coming from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone for fever and
possible Ebola exposure, announced theCDC and Department of
Homeland Security, Oct 8. Screening will begin at New York's
JFK International Airport, and Washington-Dulles, Newark,
Chicago-O'Hare, and Altanta will follow. The U.S. case of Ebola
was not apparent during travel, because the patient did not have
symptoms until several days after arriving in the United States
from West Africa, the CDC notes.
Screening could be implemented by checking for fever in any
passengers to airports whose flights began in West Africa, says
David C. Pigott, MD, professor of emergency medicine at the
University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Pigott published a
2005 review of the virus in Critical Care Clinics journal.
4. Ebola is caused by an RNA virus.
This emerging health threat is the result of a RNA (ribonucleic
acid) virus that infects wild animals like fruit bats, monkeys,
gorillas, and chimpanzees as well as people. Contact with an
infected animals blood or body fluids is probably the original
source of the infectious disease. Outbreaks of Ebola began in
1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Ebola River,
and Sudan, with later outbreaks in Uganda and other African
nations, according to World Health Organization data.
It is not a casual contact-acquired infection, notes Safdar.
Rather, in its later stages, Ebola is passed from person to person

via bodily fluids. "There is no known Ebola transmission through

coughing or sneezing, like with influenza or tuberculosis," he
says. The virus can live on surfaces that are soiled with blood or
other body fluids, but sterilizing hospital equipment with bleach
kills Ebola.
5. Early Ebola symptoms are also symptoms of other viral
infections.
Early symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, cough,
stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Because these could be
symptoms of other diseases, it's difficult to diagnose Ebola early
on. The time it takes from exposure to Ebola to actually getting
sick, known as the incubation period, is anywhere from 2 to 21
days, says UAB's Pigott. Most people who are infected with
Ebola will develop early symptoms eight to nine days after
exposure to the virus, according to the CDC. Specific tests for
antibodies against Ebola and viral DNA help doctors make a
conclusive diagnosis.
6. Bleeding is common in the later stages of Ebola.
Later symptoms of Ebola can appear quickly, within a few days
after onset of early symptoms. Due to internal and external
bleeding, the patient's eyes may become red, and they may vomit
blood, have bloody diarrhea, and suffer cardiovascular collapse
and death, explains Pigott. The only treatment doctors can
provide is supportive care they give the patient fluids and
oxygen, and keep their blood pressure steady.
7. Ebola is often fatal.
Nearly half of the cases of Ebola viral infection in West Africa
have resulted in death, based on WHO data. Of the 8,400 cases
in the current outbreak, 4,033 people have died, as of Oct 10,
according to WHO statistics.
Health workers often succumb to the disease because of close
contact with sick patients. Among those infected with Ebola was
the doctor who was the head of Ebola virus treatment in Sierra
Leone, Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, who died on July 29. The head
doctor for Ebola treatments in Liberia, Dr. Samuel Brisbane, died
from the disease three days earlier.
8. New Ebola medications are in development.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved any
treatments for Ebola, notes Pigott, who adds that there is nothing
thats been tried in humans at all. But two American health
workers who were infected in Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy
Writebol, are being treated with a drug thats still under study.
The drug is called ZMapp, and it's made by Mapp
Biopharmacuetical Inc. Its an experimental, antibody-based
medication, explains Pigott, but it has not been tested in human
trials for effectiveness. Developed in early 2014, ZMapp is
produced in plants and has not yet been found to be safe for use
in people, according to the manufacturer.
9. There is no vaccine to prevent Ebola.
Vaccines in development have been effective at preventing Ebola
infections in animal studies, researchers from the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) report. The research, on apes in
particular, is controversial because ape populations are dwindling
and in danger of extinction. It would be very difficult to test
effectiveness of an experimental vaccine in people, Pigott says,
because it's unlikely anyone is going to let you inject them with
Ebola and later see whether or not they get the infection.
However, safety testing of new vaccines in people is now
underway.
10. Ebola is not a risk to the general public in the United
States.
You are not at risk for Ebola infection unless you are in direct
contact with bodily fluids of someone with Ebola while they have
viral symptoms such as fever, vomiting, and cough. If you dont
have early viral symptoms, youre probably not contagious, says
Pigott. New infections come from close contact with an infected
person, especially with blood, body fluids, or contaminated
needles, late in the disease when viral levels are high.
To protect the U.S. public health, the CDC is building up their
capacity for testing and surveillance, and getting infection control
information out to health workers. They are training medical
responders, flight crews and airport workers on how to report a
sick passenger to the CDC in case isolation becomes necessary.