Oh jesus christ. Not one of these “Let’s talk about the symptoms without discussing the realities of the disease!” shit posts. All these do is make people panic and think their cold is some sneaky form of Ebola.
OKAY LISTEN UP YOU GUYS. ITS TIME TO PULL UP A CHAIR, TURN ON YOUR SCIENCE EARS AND:
(I’m using Bill Nye because this is gonna be a goddamn science talk and I know you people love nostalgia)
HERE ARE SOME VERY IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT EBOLA:
EBOLA IS ONLY TRANSMITTED THROUGH CONTACT WITH THE BLOOD OR BODY FLUID OF AN INFECTED PERSON.This is why one of its nicknames is “the Caregiver’s disease”! Because most people who contract it are people who were taking care of an infected patient or handled bodies with Ebola. So the general rule of thumb to avoid Ebola (and dozens of other disease much more prevalant everywhere) is: IF YOU SEE BLOOD OR BODILY FLUIDS THAT’S NOT FROM YOUR BODY - DON’T FUCKING TOUCH IT.
THE EBOLA VIRUS HAS A SHITTY SURVIVAL RATE OUTSIDE A HOST. This means that once a strain of the virus leaves a person’s body outside through blood, vomit, snot, etc - it can’t survive very long at all. In fact many scientific studies find that it’s hard to estimate exactly how long it can survive because their samples tend to start to break down before they can even run tests. This means sitting on a toilet seat in Dallas will not get you fucking ebola.
ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS THIS OUTBREAK HAS GOTTEN SO BAD IS DUE TO SHITTY HEALTH CONDITIONS AND INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE INFECTED COUNTRIES. And by shitty, I mean it’s hard to get clean water and supplies level of shitty. While we can argue about the shitty state of US healthcare (and it’s 100% valid discussion) - it really doesn’t compare to what these clinics have.
IT DOES NOT HAVE A 100% MORTALITY RATE. Yes, it can be very deadly (from 25-90%), but again, most of the reasons it’s been so deadly is because of the shitty health conditions pointed out in #3. But it is completely possible to survive through Ebola if you get proper treatment (which you shouldn’t have it in the first place if you followed #1).
NOT EVERY AFRICAN COUNTRY HAS BEEN INFECTED WITH EBOLA. In fact compared to other epidemics, the rate this one has spread is small (I mean it is tragic, no question about that, but objectively speaking it doesn’t even hold a candle to the Bubonic plague, Spanish Influenza, HIV/AIDS or even H1N1). The countries infected are Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, all located in West Africa. And by infected, I mean about 0.0004% of their combined populations of 20 million are infected - which in pandemic terms this is tiny. So if you or your friends or your family who are either traveling or living in other parts of Africa you really shouldn’t worry about Ebola because- Africa is fucking huge.
THERE IS NO SOLID EVIDENCE IT WAS CONSTRUCTED IN A LAB. This is a conspiracy theory that’s been thrown out there in order to explain why it’s so deadly. People get anxious, and they blame what they can.
And that’s it! It pretty much boils down to it’s really not something to panic about - and you shouldn’t handle other people’s bodily fluids or blood without proper equipment. Which- you really shouldn’t do that at anytime, anyplace.
