And who could have ever predicted that *roll eyes*?
Let’s go over the symptoms, shall we? Early on, Ebola looks distressingly like about a zillion other viral infections, with symptoms including high fever, headache, joint/muscle aches, chills and general weakness. As the disease progresses, you may add diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and unexplained bleeding from pretty much every orifice on the victim’s body to the list. (That last one seems to be the gold standard symptom, by the way.)
Symptoms can occur from 2-21 days after exposure, with most people falling in in the 8-10 day range. (All information from the Centers for Disease Control.)
Ebola is transmitted mostly from the, ah, fluids, from the bodies of its victims. Standard protocols for infectious disease control, applied rigorously, should keep transmission to caregivers to a minimum. That means gloves, masks, disposable over-garments, eye or face shields. Proper disposal of used protective gear is also a must.
I wouldn’t panic and start buying nitrile gloves and bleach by the case just yet, but this is definitely the sort of thing to keep a really close eye on. I wouldn’t trust our government to tell us the truth, especially in the early stages of a big outbreak. They’ll try to hide it to avoid panic. Keep up with the news, and cross check your sources. If you know people in the affected area, they might be your best source of information.
And let’s hope this all comes down to a big fat nothing, shall we?
You missed one of the symptoms. Per a tweet from Emily Miller, based upon observation of the cases in the USA so far, the very first noticeable symptom is an irresistible urge to travel on a crowded commercial airliner.