Ebola: I'm dumbfounded... [View all]

[PCIntern]

Okay, forget Ebola just for one moment if you can. Let's talk about communicable diseases of the generic variety here in the United States: so what do we have here? Colds, various flus, childhood diseases, parasitic worms, head lice, you know, all the stuff you deal with on a daily basis if you work in an office, eat in a restaurant, go to school, associate with friends, ride public transportation, shop. Except for absolute pathological recluses, this is virtually everyone in the US of A. None of us enjoy getting any of these diseases or the conditions which are manifest after their contraction, but they certainly are widespread. Vaccines have helped in many respects, unless you're an anti-Vaxxer, but then what can you say? Your children pay the penalties, you get to pontificate as to what an ethical purist you are while your kid has whooping cough in the other room. But I digress.

So…why are these viruses and bacteria so prevalent? Bad hand washing, food preparation, toilet habits certainly contribute as do interpersonal behaviors such as affection and affection-leading-to-sex. Droplets everywhere! Pathogens galore!

So again, in theory we can trace who these people work with, who they cavort with, and who they may contact in a store. But what if…the infected, symptomatic individual takes a bus, is standing and holding a pole, and sneezes on the pole and associated structures? The next person at the next stop reaches over, grabs the pole and is now infected by any definition. How is that going to be tracked? It isn't…and if the person who is next infected is, say, a daycare worker, who cannot afford to miss a day from work due to a low-grade fever, then maybe four or five or ten people may then be infected. And so it goes. Just hypothesizing.

So this is within the realm of possibility. To deny that it is is, IMHO, foolish. Yes, this particular disease is harder to 'catch' in some respects, but just as easy in others. The jury is out.