If you're travelling this end of year, perhaps you may be concerned about the spread of Ebola which has already extended beyond Africa.
It is important to note that there is no vaccination to prevent it, and recent statistics show that it has about a 50% chance of being fatal. If your travel plans lie in badly-hit places like Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, you definitely want to re-consider your travel plans. But that shouldn't stop you from travelling at all, if you have a good understanding of how the disease is spread and protect yourself.
Ebola a haemorrhagic fever, which explains the bleeding some patients experience. Ebola feels like a very bad flu when it strikes. The person breaks out in sweat and experiences body aches. Later on, they also vomit and have uncontrollable diarrhoea. Bleeding and going into shock are sometimes also experienced. The symptoms are detected any time between 2 and 21 days after exposure to the virus. Death can happen swiftly, within a few days to a couple of weeks from exposure. Those who receive adequate treatment in time can regain their health, after about a month long recovery period.
Ebola is contracted through direct contact with bodily fluids of a person with the disease. "Direct contact" means that the fluids get into broken skin or touch your mucous membranes i.e. mouth, nose, eyes, vagina.
This includes:
- Kissing
- Sharing food
- Breastfeeding
- Sex with an Ebola patient. In fact, the virus has shown to be able to live in semen for up to 82 days after a patient displays symptoms of Ebola. This means that sexual transmission of Ebola is possible with a patient who has survived the disease a few months after contracting it.
- Touching contaminated lab specimens without proper sanitisation before touching your broken skin or mucous membranes.
- Bring pricked with a syringe that has been contaminated with the virus.
- Any other forms of direct contact with blood, saliva, breast milk, stool, sweat, semen, tears, vomit, and urine.
Infected mammals can pose a problem too. Eating wild animals infected with Ebola without through cooking, or coming into contact with their bodily fluids can lead to Ebola transmission. Fruit bats are thought to be natural carriers of the disease.
- Kissing
- Sharing food
- Breastfeeding
- Sex with an Ebola patient. In fact, the virus has shown to be able to live in semen for up to 82 days after a patient displays symptoms of Ebola. This means that sexual transmission of Ebola is possible with a patient who has survived the disease a few months after contracting it.
- Touching contaminated lab specimens without proper sanitisation before touching your broken skin or mucous membranes.
- Bring pricked with a syringe that has been contaminated with the virus.
- Any other forms of direct contact with blood, saliva, breast milk, stool, sweat, semen, tears, vomit, and urine.
Infected mammals can pose a problem too. Eating wild animals infected with Ebola without through cooking, or coming into contact with their bodily fluids can lead to Ebola transmission. Fruit bats are thought to be natural carriers of the disease.
The Ebola virus can live outside the body for several hours. So it is possible to get infected by touching a contaminated door knob and then putting your hands in your mouth, against open wounds or mucous membranes. It is always important to practise good hygiene. With or without ebola, it has always been unhealthy to touch these parts of your body with dirty hands. It would be a good idea to bring an instant hand sanitizer around with you. And always wash your hands before eating.
You can't get Ebola through the following ways:
- Being exposed to a patient's coughing or sneezing, as the virus is not air-borne. The exception is if the fluids come into contact with your eyes, nose or mouth
- Mosquitoes, and any other animal/insect that isn't a mammal.
- Contact with someone who hasn't yet displayed symptoms of being ill. The virus only appears in the patient's bodily fluids when he feels ill.
It is good to be cautious, but don't let unnecessary panic disturb your holiday!
- Being exposed to a patient's coughing or sneezing, as the virus is not air-borne. The exception is if the fluids come into contact with your eyes, nose or mouth
- Mosquitoes, and any other animal/insect that isn't a mammal.
- Contact with someone who hasn't yet displayed symptoms of being ill. The virus only appears in the patient's bodily fluids when he feels ill.
It is good to be cautious, but don't let unnecessary panic disturb your holiday!