Boo! Did I scare you? Probably not. Ebola! Did I scare you? Maybe that did the trick. With Halloween approaching, it seems that Ebola has more people shaking in their boots than the scariest time of year. I agree; it can be scary. A fever can turn into bleeding internally and externally until a miraculous save or death. But do we really need to be scared? No. Here are some reasons to calm you down. Ebola is less contagious than HIV. In an article published by National Public Radio the virus ranks No. 2 on what’s called an “R0” scale. The R0 or “R nought” is a mathematical term that measures how contagious or infectious a disease or virus is. It is based off all the population that could potentially be infected. Since Ebola does rank at an R0 of 2 this means each positive case of Ebola will be passed on to two other people. Yes this means it can easily double, but HIV has a R0 of 4, according to the NPR article. You have a better chance of contracting HIV in the U.S. than you do Ebola. The virus is only contagious when the host is showing symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea, chest pain and cough. The four cases in the U.S. have been primarily in health care workers who have come in direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected patient. Those workers were quarantined and only one patient in the U.S. has died. He was a patient that came to the U.S. from West Africa where he was helping, and came in direct contact with bodily fluids of infected hosts. Now, let’s think about this. If you do not let anyone who has Ebola cough vomit into your face, your odds of staying Ebola free are in your favor. Out of the 7 billion people in the world a little less than 5,000 people have died and only four people in the U.S. have been infected, according to the CDC. Again, the odds are in your favor. Last week, President Obama hugged an Ebola survivor. It’s something that the U.S. can over come. If you flinch more at the thought of someone wearing a zombie mask this weekend than you do when you here the word “Ebola,” you’re doing it right. #stopebola2014 #stopfreakingoutaboutebola2014
