How to Deal With Ebola Panic? Stay Away from WebMD

Do not search Ebola on WebMD! Seriously!

I know I have a loathe/hate relationship with WebMD, but this is not my prejudice talking. Heed my warning and do not go there. You just might land on this little charmer of a video and if you harbor even a little spark of anxiety over Ebola, it might be ignited into a raging bonfire of panic:

Top 3 Reasons Not to Panic About Ebola - Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms |health|

It starts out, to quote: “Everyone knows that Ebola kills, but what exactly does it do?”

Whew! Glad he started out with a little reassurance.

Followed by: “This worm-like virus has a devious way of working.”

Way to soothe by personifying a hunk of RNA with the intentions of a villain.

But at least he follows up with this: “In the current outbreak, 60% of the people have died.”

Where? Where are you talking about?! My local Shoparama?!

It’s not until the last few seconds of the video that we get: “The risk of catching Ebola is extremely low in the U.S.”

Well, hope you were able to grab some smelling salts and hang in through the “particle explosions of virus” storming through your body and “bleeding from your eyes” to get to that part.

Don’t get me wrong. Everything in that video is accurate and Ebola is serious. Serious for the people in West Africa where in the current outbreak there have been more than 4,900 deaths. But keep in mind, those deaths are out of about 10,100 cases, making the rate of death below 50% even with what we would consider sub-par medical care.

In contrast, in the United States, there have been  4 confirmed cases out of a population of almost 319,000,000. There has been one death and he contracted it in Liberia. There are contentions that his diagnosis was delayed, but I wouldn’t lose sleep about future misdiagnoses. Anyone with a fever is prompting cries of “Is it Ebola?!”

But just as panic is ramping up here, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared Nigeria free of Ebola virus transmission. This is tremendous news because at one point during the summer, the outbreak in Nigeria was feared to be the most potentially explosive one to date.

Let’s focus on the “to date.” Here’s a fun fact, Ebola was first recorded in 1976. This isn’t some new-fangled disease. The people of Africa have suffered through outbreak after outbreak for about four decades. It’s just that the American public didn’t really take notice until it flew onto our doorsteps.

It was the same way with HIV. The first HIV/AIDS epidemic took root in Africa in the 1970s with the spread of the disease exploding in the 1980s. But Americans only really became concerned when it landed in Los Angeles; and it didn’t take long for that concern to rocket to hysteria. The rampant fear spawned discrimination and hate crimes: children were banned from schools. adults lost their jobs, and houses were burned down.

During my medical training, I started my rotation on the  HIV infectious disease  ward when fears were still bubbling and the FDA approval of life-prolonging multi-drug therapies was still on the horizon. Heck, at the time, AIDS was the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44.

But I was not afraid. Because science.

I knew HIV was spread through bodily fluids and I wore my gloves and face shields. With scientific evidence as my guide, I calmly and compassionately took care of those HIV patients.

You need to know, though, that I am not cavalier. There are some things that  get me jittery, like diseases with a respiratory route for transmission. We canceled our trip to Mexico in 2009 when the H1N1 pandemic was gripping the world. I did not want to end my vacation in quarantine because an infected person happened to be sharing the recirculated air with me on my tin can of an airplane. If I had to choose between snakes or swine flu on a plane? I would pick the reptiles all day long.

With this evidence and background, I present without further ado,  my reasons for NOT panicking over Ebola.

Top 3 Reasons NOT to Panic over Ebola

Top 3 Reasons Not to Panic About Ebola - Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms |health|

1.  It is NOT transmitted though the air.

To become infected, a healthy person’s broken skin or mucous membranes must come in direct contact with the blood, or other bodily fluids (stool, urine, saliva, semen) of a symptomatic, infected person. Infection can also occur if broken skin or mucous membranes of a healthy person come into contact with environments, such as soiled clothing, bed linen, or used needles, that have become contaminated with an Ebola patient’s infectious fluids .

2.  Ebola is highly infectious, but moderately contagious.

Infectious and contagious are not interchangeable. Ebola is highly infectious because only a small amount of the virus is needed to cause disease, BUT it is only moderately contagious because it requires direct contact to catch it. To reiterate: Ebola is not spread through the air, water, food, or mosquitoes.

3. Ebola is not transmissible if someone is asymptomatic.

There are no silent carriers sneaking around amongst us. A person has to be sick to spread it. Even if someone is starting to be ill with a fever and fatigue, they are still not that contagious. Spread of infection becomes very risky once a patient’s bodily fluids are exploding forth because of violent vomiting and diarrhea. By the time a patient is this sick, he or she is incapacitated and not moving about in public.

There you have it. Ebola has gripped our attention because the disease, once contracted, progresses so quickly and is so visibly horrifying; but there is no reason to worry that it is going to storm through our country via casual contact. Be concerned, but do NOT panic. In fact, you may want to save your worry for the health care providers who are treating Ebola patients. Worry that they are following recommendations for personal protective equipment and environmental infection control. Say a little prayer of  thanks that there are people willing to take care of us.

And maybe be a little grateful that with this new and glaring Star Spangled spotlight, efforts are finally intensifying to find vaccines and treatments for all of the world.

-Ellen

 

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6 thoughts on “How to Deal With Ebola Panic? Stay Away from WebMD

    1. The Sisterhood Post author

      I think there is such panic because the disease kills in such a horrific way. But the fact that there are so few cases here in the U.S., despite there being infected people, is a testament to how it is not easily transmitted. Ellen

      Reply
  1. Frank

    The media is clearly trying to cause a panic simply to get people to tune in to the news. The irresponsiblility is almost criminal in my opinion. This article is well written and based on facts and not opinions. Thank you for your clear explanation of what’s actually going on instead of what morons like Matt Lauer are spewing.

    Reply
  2. Meredith

    “Because science”. My husband will love this! Someone told me over the weekend that Kim Kardashian has been married to more people than Ebola has killed. Not sure if accurate, but made me snort…thanks, ladies!
    Meredith recently posted..JumpingMy Profile

    Reply

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