Myths and rumors about the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa are hindering health workers from doing their jobs abroad and causing unnecessary panic and paranoia in the United States. Here's the truth about some of the most common misconceptions about Ebola virus:
Myth: Ebola virus is airborne, waterborne or spreads through casual contact.
Truth: Ebola virus spreads when the bodily fluids of an infected person comes into contact with the mucous membranes of a non-infected person. That means Ebola virus in fluids like blood, sweat or urine has to come in contact with your eyes, mouth, nostrils, ears, genital area or an open wound in order to infect you.
In other words, it takes a lot of contact to become infected with the virus, which is why many of the victims of the disease in West Africa are health care workers or family members caring for a sick relative. In Western hospitals, transmission is easily prevented with precautionary measures like face masks, gloves, protective gowns and isolation units.
Last week the CDC updated its Ebola virus disease webpage, where it characterized casual contact with infected individuals as "low risk" behavior. The agency defines "casual contact" as "being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) or within the room or care area for a prolonged period of time ... while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment [or] having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD case while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment."
Health workers in West Africa are teaching community members about the importance of washing hands with soap and water, bringing sick family members to clinics and burying the bodies of people who have died from Ebola to minimize infection risk.
Myth: Immigrant kids from Latin America could bring Ebola into the U.S.
Truth: We can thank Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind. for this ridiculous rumor. He made the bogus claim on Monday on a local radio show, arguing that the release of unaccompanied immigrant children into the U.S. pose a public health risk, reports nwi.com.
Rokita recounted a conversation he had with a fellow congressman about the so-called risk, saying, "He said, 'look, we need to know just from a public-health standpoint, with Ebola circulating and everything else' -- no, that's my addition to it, not necessarily his -- but he said we need to know the condition of these kids."
The Indiana congressman was swiftly put in place by a rep at the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, who told nwi.com that no one has ever contracted the Ebola virus disease in the Western Hemisphere.
Myth: International medical teams brought the virus to West Africa.
Truth: This devastating myth may actually be prolonging the Ebola outbreak. The World Health Organization notes that a team of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) were accused of bringing the virus into Guinée Forestière, where they were working, and temporarily had to stop working because of it. The Centers for Disease and Control are coordinating efforts to reach out to community leaders like healers and elders to combat the myth with education about Ebola symptoms and proper treatment in a clinic.
Kalala Ngalamulume, Ph.D., an associate professor of history and Africana studies at Bryn Mawr College, argues that the death rate of this current Ebola strain (around 55 percent and expected to rise), combined with misinformation about the disease, gives villagers good reason to be skeptical.
"People are told that there is no treatment for the Ebola virus, that the people who are taken to the medical centers will die, and that nobody survives after contracting an infection," wrote Ngalamulume in an email to The Huffington Post. "It is thus not surprising that many villagers assume that people are being taken to hospital to die, or even that hospitals are killing them. Rumors fly."
Myth: Bringing Ebola patients to the U.S. puts Americans at risk.
Truth: Donald Trump decided to weigh in against bringing American Ebola patients back to the U.S. for treatment, tweeting, "The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!"
While leaving soldiers on the battlefield may be his style, Trump's tweet reveals that he doesn't understand what makes the Ebola outbreak so fatal. The spread of Ebola is possible not because it's a uniquely potent virus strain, but because of the healthcare disparity in West Africa.
Gloves, gowns, masks, proper hygiene standards and isolation units are enough to protect healthcare workers from contracting Ebola from their patients. But the countries where Ebola has spread don't have the adequate resources or facilities to properly treat and quarantine patients.
Tulane University virus expert Dr. Daniel Bausch told Voice of America that years of war and poverty have left countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia uniquely vulnerable to an outbreak.
“You go to a hospital in Sierra Leone or Liberia, and it’s not unusual for a healthcare worker to say, ‘We don’t have gloves.’ Or, ‘We don’t have clean needles,'" said Bausch to VOA. “All of the large outbreaks of Ebola or its sister virus, Marburg, happen in places where social and political unrest over the years have decimated the public health system."
Myth: Even if you beat Ebola, you can still pass on the virus to others.
Truth: Usually, only people who are exhibiting Ebola symptoms can pass the virus on to others. The only American who has died from Ebola during this outbreak is from Minnesota, where there is a large Liberian population. To address fears in the community, Aaron DeVries, the medical director of the infectious disease divison at the Minnesota Department of Health, addressed this issue and others during an interview with local NBC affiliate Kare 11.
DeVries confirmed that only people exhibiting Ebola symptoms, like fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea, can pass the virus on to others. However, the World Health Organization notes that a man who has had Ebola can transmit the virus via his semen for up to 7 weeks after they've recovered from the disease.
Myth: This is the first major outbreak of Ebola.
Truth: This is the largest outbreak of Ebola in history, but it isn't the first. The virus was first diagnosed in humans in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It infected 318 people and had an 88 percent fatality rate. Since then, various strains of the disease have popped up around the African continent, infecting as many as 425 people in 2000 and, most recently, 57 people in 2012, according to WHO.
As of Aug. 4, 2014, the most recent count available, Ebola virus has infected 1,711 people and killed 932 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the virus emerged again this year.
Myth: Ebola can be treated with antibiotics (or onions, or condensed milk, or...)
Truth: Antibiotics cure bacterial infections, not viral infections. Currently, there is neither a cure nor a vaccine for the Ebola virus.
Instead, there is an experimental serum called ZMapp, which contains antibodies designed to help block the virus. Before the 2014 Ebola outbreak, it had only ever been tested on monkeys and has not been approved for human use. American Ebola patients Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol decided to risk it and take the experimental drug, and early reports are cautiously optimistic about their improving conditions. However, it's unclear what role (if any) the drug is playing in their recovery, reports the Washington Post.
Myth: Ebola liquifies your organs, which causes bleeding from the orifices.
Truth: While Ebola symptoms can include bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth, those things only happen in about 20 percent of cases, explained Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, M.D., the associate hospital epidemiologist at Boston Medical Center and director of Infection Control at Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories in a previous HuffPost story.
The body's organs are not liquified. However, when people die from Ebola, it's usually because the virus causes multi-organ failure and shock. This occurs because Ebola virus weakens blood vessels, causing internal and sometimes external bleeding. The virus also prevents the body from clotting blood effectively, which would help to stop the bleeding.
This story has been updated with additional information about exposure risks, issued by the CDC after the article's original publication.
Related
Before You Go
