How Ebola Is Spread

There are numerous ways that you can contract the Ebola virus and many ways that it can be spread. That’s one of the reasons why it’s been so difficult to contain.

The Myths

Most people mistakenly think that the only way the virus can be spread is through direct contact with someone else who’s symptomatic. Direct human contact is only one of the ways the virus is spread.

Surfaces are the second way. The virus is tough enough to live on surfaces as long as 48 hours if the conditions are right for its survival. It doesn’t usually survive long on surfaces in very cold or very hot temperatures.

However, it can live on surfaces if the area is at room temperature. The top way that the virus is spread is through human contact. You can come in direct or even indirect contact and then contract the virus.

Body Fluids Is The Fastest

Body fluids are how the virus is being spread so rapidly. If someone has Ebola and another person comes in contact with blood from the one infected, then he or she can go on to develop the virus.

This can happen by touching someone without the use of gloves. But you can also get it by touching any object that has an infected person’s blood (or even sweat) on it.

Another Way Is Saliva

This means used tissues or medical instruments as well as infected clothing. Saliva is another body fluid that can cause the virus to pass from person to person.

If someone is drooling and you touch the drool, you can get Ebola. If an infected person drinks from a cup and leaves a bit of their saliva on the side of the cup and you come in contact with it, you can contract the virus.

The virus can also be spread through infected urine

If someone goes to the bathroom and a drop of urine spills on the floor, you’re at risk of getting the virus if you come in contact with the urine.

If you come in contact with the feces of an infected person, then you have a chance of getting sick with the virus. Semen is also another body fluid in which the virus can be shared.

Sweat can also cause the disease to be spread

Sweat can also cause the disease to be spread from one person to another. If someone who has the virus sweats and another person trying to be helpful, lifts that person by putting their hands under his arms, that can be a direct contact.

One of the reasons that the virus spreads so quickly with body fluids is because most people don’t realize at first that they’re sick. Even when they become symptomatic, they pass those symptoms off and so they end up being the link that carries the virus to someone else.

Even if someone does survive the disease, there’s a potential that the once infected person can still pass it on for up to just under 8 weeks. Any item that’s been contaminated with the virus carries the potential of giving the virus to you.

Get away from infected medical instruments

If there are medical supplies such as IV bags, needles, or medical instruments that have the virus on them, you can get the virus by touching these items and introducing Ebola into your body.

All it takes is for a person to touch a contaminated item and then rub his eyes or touch his finger to his mouth. Any open cuts on the skin an also be a way for the Ebola virus to get into the body of you touch an item that’s been contaminated.

Soiled linens that someone with the virus has rested on can also be capable of spreading the virus from one human to another. Humans and touching a contaminated item aren’t the only way that the Ebola virus is transmitted.

The third way is by having contact with an infected animal. According to the World Health Organization, the virus can be passed on to humans by animals infected with the virus.

fruit bat is the main culprit

One of the main culprits for spreading the virus is the fruit bat. When these animals bite another animal or another animal eats something that has the fruit bat’s infected saliva on it, the virus is spread.

What then happens is people handle the carcasses or organs of these infected animals and they become infected.

There’s no a big concern that somehow the virus will begin spreading through mosquitoes like malaria. That would be a nightmare of pandemic proportions if an outbreak occurred in the United States.