Staff Writer
Recently, I was waiting at a rental car service, and the lady next to me asked me, “Do you think you are going to get Ebola?”
I laughed and responded, “No, I absolutely do not fear an Ebola infection.”
Ebola is a rare and often deadly disease caused by an infection with one of the Ebola virus strains.
It was discovered in 1976, and while it is considered extremely infectious, it is not extremely contagious.
The virus is not transmitted through the air, and a human can be infected only by contact with an infected person or animal’s bodily fluids.
The odds of contracting an incurable sexually transmitted infection are far higher than contracting Ebola.
In the United States, there are almost 20 million cases of new sexually transmitted infections annually.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you most likely know a few people who have herpes or another sexually transmitted infection. However, you most likely do not know the four Americans been infected with Ebola.
There have been almost 5,000 deaths from Ebola worldwide, most of them in Western Africa, according to the CDC.
When this article was printed, Thomas Duncan was the only person from the U.S. who died because of this disease. He previously worked in Liberia where most of the Ebola-related deaths have occurred.
So far, two infected Americans have been cured. Nigeria and Senegal have been declared Ebola-free.
I think it is safe to say that we can go back to introducing ourselves by name and commenting on the weather, instead of stressing out about Ebola.
Melissa Plummer is a sophomore biology major at LLCC and president of Phi Theta Kappa. She can be reached at 217-786-2311 or [email protected].