Inoculating Yourself Against Common Myths About the Ebola Virus
There's no doubt that it's a nasty disease -- but all the myths about the Ebola virus make it seem like a much worse of a threat than it actually is.
If you've ever read Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, you've probably received a healthy dose of the most common myths about the Ebola virus. The fictionalized film version, Outbreak, just made it worse. While both made us aware of a very real biological threat, they also sensationalized it to an alarming degree.
Admittedly, Ebola hemorrhagic fever (to give it its proper name) is very scary indeed: it has a death rate of up to 90%, and it does horrible things to the human body. But the myths that have grown up around it in the scant few decades since its discovery are scarier than the disease. Let's look at a few.
Myth 1: Ebola is a plague that threatens human existence!
Maybe so, but the statistics fail to bear this out. If you take a closer look at this myth about the Ebola virus, you have to conclude that the disease isn't especially aggressive, at least compared to more common illnesses we barely pay attention to. Ebola kills no more than about 300 people worldwide in its worst years.
While that's certainly tragic, diseases like tuberculosis and malaria kill millions of people annually. Even the flu is more dangerous. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate that about 36,000 people die of the flu and flu-related issues in the U.S. alone every single year. So what's the real plague here?
Myth 2: Ebola liquefies your organs and tissues!
This is another myth about the Ebola virus that the media's been quick to spread, but it's not true. Like many illnesses, Ebola does cause inflammation that results in tissue destruction as your body tries to fight the infection. A side effect is a buildup of excess fluids that then tend to leak out of the bodily orifices.
Because Ebola attacks blood cells, much of this fluid is bloody (hence the term "hemorrhagic" in the formal name). The fact that this drainage leaves the body by the nose, eyes, mouth, etc. is especially horrifying. But the internal organs and tissues do not liquefy, despite what certain writers would have you believe.
Myth 3: Ebola could easily spread out of control, and cause a worldwide pandemic!
Look at this myth about the Ebola virus in light of the information presented above, and you'll see that it's very unlikely. If Ebola did spread as easily as all the scaremongers claim, then it would affect thousands of people at a time, rather than dozens -- or, in the very worst cases, hundreds.
The spread of Ebola is a real problem only in areas that don't employ standard medical sterilization techniques -- places like the poorest, most isolated regions of Africa, which is where Ebola almost always breaks out. Luckily, Ebola doesn't seem to spread through airborne transmission at all.
It appears to spread primarily by direct contact with infected body fluids, and sometimes by mucous membrane contact. Proper protection against infection, such as sterilization, quarantining, gloving, and other barriers, stops Ebola in its tracks. If only getting rid of these myths about the Ebola virus was as easy...
