Sick passenger's seatmate speaks to CNN

[uppityperson]

41. That is not how they test. Here is an interesting article about viewing viruses, and ebola testing

Most viruses are too small to be seen directly with an optical microscope.

http://www.cnet.com/news/nanoscope-makes-live-viruses-visible-for-first-time/

'Nanoscope' makes live viruses visible for first time

Viruses are small. Very small. There are millions of types, and the 5,000 or so that have been studied in detail are typically between 10 and 300 nanometers (one-billionth of a meter) in diameter.

Because the wavelengths of visible light range from roughly 300 to 800 nanometers, viruses aren't exactly visible under normal lighting. Only optical fluoresce microscopes can see inside a virus, and then only indirectly, using dye, which cannot actually penetrate a virus.

So the "microsphere nanoscope" developed by scientists at the University of Manchester's School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering in the U.K. and described in the journal Nature Communications is remarkable on two counts: It breaks the world record of direct imaging under normal lights by 20 times, viewing objects as small as 50 nm wide, and what's more, the tech behind it imposes no theoretical limit in the size of feature that can be seen.

This incredible jump in capacity could allow humans to see inside human cells and even live viruses for the first time, which in turn could give us many new insights into their structures and behaviors....(more)

About ebola tests, the formatting got all messed up with copy/paste so look at the link for the whole thing
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/diagnosis/

Within a few days after symptoms begin:
Antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing
IgM ELISA
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

http://www.newsweek.com/how-hospitals-test-ebola-274898

Thomas Ksiazek, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston who has done extensive research on Ebola, says that testing is done using a process called real-time RT-PCR, or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

In this technique, doctors or medical personnel take samples of blood from a patient. They then add an enzyme to convert RNA found in the blood into DNA (RNA is a chemical messenger that helps turn DNA’s “instructions” into proteins). Next, a “primer” is added that targets a string of genetic code unique to the Ebola virus. The concoction is then run through a PCR machine, wherein that strand of Ebola genetic material is amplified, or copied, many times (if it’s there, that is. If it’s not, nothing happens and the test returns a negative.)

Finally, a chemical probe is added that binds to these snippets of DNA and alerts the scientists to the presence of the Ebola virus, Ksiazek tells Newsweek. The whole process can take as little as three to four hours.

In the case of the man in Dallas, authorities initially didn’t connect the symptoms he presented with on September 26 to his recent visit to Liberia. When he returned to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for a second time on September 28, he’d been sick for four days—certainly long enough for the PCR test to return a positive result, Ksiazek says.

In fact, the PCR test is sensitive enough that by the time most people show up with symptoms in a hospital, it will be able to detect the virus, says Ksiazek, who is a former head of the CDC’s Special Pathogens Branch and has dealt with the containment of viruses like Ebola on a daily basis....(more)