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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Anyone have a good understand of how exactly ebola is transmitted. I understand this from WHO:

"Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids. Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. People remain infectious as long as their blood and body fluids, including semen and breast milk, contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness."

So, in some ways it's similar to HIV; but still, [b]why the layered-full-body-not-an-ounce-of-skin-exposed suits? If[/b] your wrist is exposed but there's no cut on it, how could you still get ebola? Is there concern the patient can vomit on your exposed wrist and the virus can burrow into your pores? Should you not shake hands with someone who has active ebola, even if their hands are not covered in vomit? [/quote]

It's because the symptoms of Ebola makes you produce a lot of bodily fluid, in a way that HIV doesn't. Ebola causes diarrhea, fever (with sweating), vomiting, and bleeding from eyes, ears, nose, mouth, vagina, rectum.  (HIV doesn't do this.) If that blood gets in a scratch on your hands or neck or in your eyes or nose or mouth, you can catch it. If the patient coughs or shakes or moves a limb suddenly the bodily fluids can become aerosoled, along with the virus in them.

Ebola creates the symptoms which make it spread. HIV doesn't.[/quote]

So then it CAN be transmitted through the air; therefore, you do NOT want to be on a crowded train with someone who might have ebola but is one day away from being diagnosed because they really think they have the flu, or, like the doctor in NYC who first lied to officials about traveling around the city, aren't feeling too hot but still want to see their friends because it's been a while. [/quote]

It's not the same. Flu is an air-borne virus. Ebola is a droplet borne virus. It doesn't just get into the air. It gets into fluid, which can become airborne. Being on a train with someone who has a fever isn't a huge deal. There are several recorded cases of people flying with Ebola and a fever over 100 and they didn't infect people on the plane.  You don't want to be on a train/plane with someone who is vomiting, has diarrhea, has a cough, or is bleeding from their nose, mouth, eyes, etc. [/quote]

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