Why are so many people getting sick if Ebola is not very contagious? How are makers supposed to get involved and make a difference? We need to understand fundamentals about Ebola if we’re going to help with Fighting Ebola. Let’s start with a little background on the disease.
The current epidemic is the Zaire strain of Ebola. People become infected with it only when they come in contact with bodily fluids (e.g. blood, saliva, tears, urine, etc.) of someone showing symptoms. Ebola is not airborne. To become infected you must transfer the virus from infected fluids in to your system. The common pathways are through the mucus membranes of the eyes, nose and mouth but there are other ways such as through an open wound. This need for direct contact is why it’s not very contagious.
However, in caring for the sick there is plenty of opportunity to contract the disease. Infected people experience fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and more producing lots of infected fluids. The sicker the infected, the more virus they produce, and the easier it is for someone to pick it up. Very importantly, you must come in physical contact with body fluids and the virus must find its way into your system. The virus is found in a variety of fluids including blood, saliva, stools, tears, urine, sweat, breast milk, and semen. Caring for the sick puts people in close proximity to infected fluids and potentially exposing caregivers to Ebola.
Another irony is that while it’s often deadly if you contract it, the Ebola virus is actually quite easy to kill. This virus is in what’s called a “lipid envelope”, that means the virus is enclosed in a vulnerable fatty enclosure. The protective envelop can be easily destroyed with exposure to disinfectants, heat or UV light from sunshine. The virus only stays alive for hours to days and is easy to kill with bleach or alcohol. In many ways this makes the virus seem rather feeble and easy to clean up after.
So, Ebola is not very contagious.
However the sick produce lots of fluids
and contact with those can lead to infection.
Therein lies our challenge … eliminating exposure while close to the infected. We makers can invent ways to do this, prototype our ideas, and help shut down this crisis. Pop on over to the Research area of the Challenge to learn more. To solve a problem you must first understand it.
0 thoughts on “Makers Against Ebola – The Virus”
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“Why are so many people getting sick if Ebola is not very contagious?”
You understand that this sentence makes no sense at all, don’t you?
I think I understand the point you’re trying to make, but the label “not very contagious” is absolutely incorrect.
The question is designed to provoke interest, and make you curious to read further. At first, there seems to be a contradiction, surely the definition of contagious involves people catching the disease? The author has done this on purpose, and if he did not go on to explain then you are right it would “make no sense”, but he does.
When you read further you see that “not very contagious” is used in a clinical sense as compared to other diseases that are airborn, live longer, and are harder to kill.
So, as you read, the statement makes perfect sense, and is absolutely correct. The author could say, “Why are so many people getting sick if Ebola is not very contagious when compared to many other diseases?”, but that would not be as effective a tool to draw the reader into the article.
tl;dr context matters.
A cultural shift towards avoiding transmission of vectors could help. E.g. more people in Japan wearing face masks when they have a cold. How about a vomit bag dispenser in Hospitals, mass transit, etc… with the text “I’ll use this to avoid infecting you” on it. LOL.