Gotta agree with Max on this one, and my inner-survivalist is definitely speaking here but... something just doesn't seem right about this epidemic. It seems out of control for something that is not easily transmitted. I understand it's not airborne, but being able to be transmitted by "bodily fluids" is not specific enough to be honest -- that can mean anything.
Are saliva droplets from a cough in the air are sufficient to transmit?
Is sweat a vector of transmission?
What about on the recipient? Do they need to touch a mucous membrane to get infected?
I just think if we go back to the beginning of this outbreak, we were told - "don't worry, don't worry." And like almost all Ebola outbreaks previously, I didn't worry. Now we're saying, ehh.. things are getting out of control, but "don't worry."
Now we're also saying that semen is a vector of transmission; meaning that a person could get sick, hide, have a 1 in 7 chance of survival, then fly to the United States and infect someone here? I understand the mathematics with respect to probability, but is that actually possible? I've read numerous reports that wives have been infected by their husbands via sex after they've survived the illness.
To me it seems only a matter of time before this reaches the United States (or the Philippines). If and when that happens, what if all of the "don't worry" talk is just talk, and we see similar levels of infection?
I'm not predicting this to happen (I do think we'll see some U.S. based cases soon enough though), but at the same time I won't be surprised if/when it does.
p.s.
To those who are more knowledgeable with regards to medicine and biology (again, not my fields), why aren't these regions on a complete and total lockdown? I mean a two week quarantine, curfew, do not leave your fucking house or you'll be shot quarantine? This seems like a problem that could resolve itself due to the rapidity in which Ebola kills its victims.
