Although discussions about the Ebola virus run rampant everywhere from newspapers to neighborhood chatter, the truth about the virus is hard to find.
Common misconceptions about the virus, ranging from potential symptoms to the virus’s continental spread, have further added to the confusion.
One myth about Ebola is that its symptoms are mostly categorized by a fever.
According to infectious disease doctor Bob Tiballi, founder of Germ Busters in Elgin, 85 percent of patients do exhibit a fever, but 15 percent do not.
“They’re using fevers as an absolute hallmark of the disease, which is certainly not the case. Someone could be without fever and still be contagious,” Tiballi said.
Tiballi also noted that Ebola was historically a disease involving hemorrhagic episodes, in which the patient virtually bleeds to death. However, he confirmed that the current strain of the virus mainly causes electrolyte loss through fluids leaving the body, with only minor bleeding.
In addition to symptom myths, there is also confusion about the way the virus is contracted.
“If you’re breathing air within 3-5 feet of the patient, and you don’t have proper respiratory equipment, it is contagious through the air,” Tiballi said, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not consider this to fall into the airborne category.
Melaney Arnold, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health, feels that the misconception that Ebola is spread like influenza is one of the biggest issues.
“It takes a lot more to spread from person to person. You have to have very close contact with bodily fluids in order to contract Ebola,” she said.
However, once the infected person is in the disease’s later stages, all bodily fluids (including sweat and saliva droplets) are contagious.
“You can touch somebody, in the later stages, and that touch is infectious. It is transmissible through intact skin,” Tiballi said.
Although Ebola is more contagious than previously believed, Tiballi noted that Illinois residents have no cause for alarm.
“Here in Chicago, we haven’t had any cases. People don’t need to be concerned if they have a fever,” he said. “The way we would get Ebola in Illinois is somebody stepping off a plane with it, not somebody going to McDonalds and getting it from somebody there. It’s not from casual contact in Illinois.”
Arnold agrees, but with an err of caution.
“Right now the risk of Ebola to anyone in Illinois is extremely low. That being said, until the outbreak in West Africa is under control, there is always a risk of Ebola in Illinois,” she said.
In West Africa, Tiballi explained, the disease spread due to a lack in emergency preparedness.
“The reason people are dying in Africa is because of a lack of infrastructure. In Liberia they virtually have nothing, no intravenous hydration or breathing support. Stuff that’s standard here. So I think there’s a big difference,” he said.
However, he warned that this sense of security in the U.S. is not absolute.
“The CDC has been treating this as something less than it is. The public perceives this as more serious than that agency has been letting on, and it is. The public perceives accurately,” Tiballi said.
Arnold explained that anybody who is concerned about his or her symptoms should look at the risk criteria.
“Travel from one of the West African countries, and then exposure to someone who was infected with Ebola, and having direct contact without wearing protective equipment. If somebody does not have close contact with someone who has Ebola, then the risk is basically not there,” she said.
Up-to-date details about the disease can be found at ebola.illinois.gov or on the Ebola hotline at 800-889-3931.
