That's the kind of oversimplification and denial that has helped to contribute to the current epidemic in Africa.
In those African countries where Ebola is out of control people had the same mentality. Some believed it was a plot by the whites against the blacks. Others believed it didn't exist. Others simply refused to believe that it was easy to catch. And now it's still out of control and just as easy, if not easier, to catch.
The only reason, the only reason, why people aren't coming down with it right now left and right in the US is that our country is vast and the incidence of the disease is low. It's as easy to catch as any other virus. It spreads very much like the common cold and many other viruses...a contaminated person touches something and then someone else touches that object and then rubs their eye, touches their nose, mouth or face.
There's not a whole lot of surfaces or objects here in the US yet that can spread it. There's tons in the West African countries and it's spreading.
When it takes hold here it will be just as easy to catch.
And as long as it's out of control in Africa it's only a matter of time until it takes hold here. There is no cure. There is no vaccine. It has a 70% mortality rate.
The Ebola virus is actually pretty hard to catch. The easiest viruses to catch are the respiratory viruses—things like influenza and the cold viruses. Since Ebola is not a respiratory virus, it is not normally contained within the nasal secretions. It also is not airborne. It is a bloodborne pathogen, and as such, does not spread by casual contact.
Monrovia, in Liberia, is a city of close to a million people. It is also the center of the outbreak right now. Even there, in the heart of the outbreak, there just aren’t that many cases. If Ebola were very contagious, it would have swept across the entire continent of Africa by now, and be moving across Europe, Asia, the Americas, etc. Look how quickly the influenza virus moves—it goes around the entire world in weeks.