No, Seriously, How Contagious Is Ebola?

[uppityperson]

5. Here is an interesting article "can you catch ebola from an infected blanket?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/03/can-you-catch-ebola-from-an-infected-blanket/

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The Ebola virus is highly infectious but not very transmissible. That may sound to a lay person’s ear like a contradiction. What this means is that very little virus – in animal experiments, as few as 10 virus particles (virions) – can potentially lead to a fatal infection. That’s the “infectious” part of the equation.

But it’s not easy for that virus to be transmitted. Ebola is much less contagious than measles or influenza. It’s not an airborne virus. It’s transmitted through bodily fluids. The overwhelming majority of people who have been infected with Ebola are people who have directly cared for a person who is actively sick with the disease or have handled the body of someone who has died from it.

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In one laboratory experiment, scientists couldn’t recover Ebola virus that had contaminated a surface kept at room temperature. In another study, Ebola virus kept at cold temperature was recovered from plastic and glass surfaces after more than three weeks. But Peter Jahrling, director of the Integrated Research Facility of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md., doubts that in the real world the virus would survive nearly that long.

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Anyone dealing with the virus should be extremely careful, she said – because the consequences of a mistake are potentially so dire. “Because the outcome is so potentially dangerous – the case fatality is extremely high with this virus – you have to be extremely cautious. You need to take that extra step, because if you do have an exposure and if you are exposed to even a small quantity of the virus, the potential for a negative outcome is extremely high,” said Hensley.