You do not have to ingest body fluids to get ill. I get so tired of the misinformation. All you need is infected body fluid to come in contact with a mucous membrane or microscopic cut on your skin. think sneeze, etc... And ebola victims shed body fluids everywhere. Or you put your hand on a bus seat where someone with ebola sneezed then put your hand to your face
While not airborn (at least not proven yet) this is a highly contagious disease that has been spread to people wearing full protective gear. I would not want to be on a plane or subway next to someone with active ebola.
The transmission methods is the part of this story that I am watching closely. From very reliable sources I have learned one can catch Ebola from
contact with infected animals (pigs, bats, monkeys)
contact with "droppings" of infected animals
eating any part of an infected animal
touching anything excreted (blood, sweat, urine, fetal matter) by an infected person.
any part of your skin touches any part of an infected persons skin
inhaling the droplets an infected person exhales via sneeze cough.
touching any item an infected person has recently touched.
touching a hard surface that has recently been in contact with anything wore, excreted or touched by an infected person who is dead or nearly dead from Ebola.
I am sure there are other means of Ebola spreading. It appears to me that Ebola is very contagious and could easily spread in a high density US city. I also think things are much worse then we are being told. Only 1500 infected? Only 800+ dead in West Africa? Really? I think way more.
I wasn’t trying to deliberately misinform, you mistake my intent. I’m saying that oftentimes the sick are left out to die and rot and fester in Africa. Our healthcare facilities are much better equipped (not necessarily prepared) than any out of a third world country.
Further, while those in heavily populated cities like NYC, Chicago, and Los Angeles are at higher risk due to higher potentially infected people, those of us in rural America are not going to be scrambling to buy PPE.
I think that, even though an N95 wont stop a .03 micron ebola virus, it will severely hinder it in your "bus stop seat" scenario. I mean, if you have to scratch your nose and your virus laden finger hits a mask, well, you have some mitigation protection....a little.....but at least something.
Wife and I have gone to DEFCON 4 at our house: Washing hands with soap and water in our mudroom upon entry. Using alchohol gel getting in and out of both vehicles. When we wash hour hands in a public restroom, we open the door when we exit with the paper towel and throw it "basketball style" into recepticle. At DEFCON 3, we will institute the mudroom as a hot zone and take off our shoes after stepping in a boot tray with bleach solution. .....I don't want to think of DEFCON 2 and 1....which will probably be wearing CBRN equipment, or at least having it available.