Official CDC recs for handling exposed persons (ebola):

[kestrel91316]

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/monitoring-and-movement-of-persons-with-exposure.html

[BlindTiresias]

1. Oh no

But it "isn't spread through handshakes!!!!!"

and "You need to literally be eating their blood to get infected!!!!!"

[morningfog]

7. That link is for health care workers and is specific to EVD patients.

The advice is for health care workers to not shake an EVD patient's hand without protective gear. No shit. An EVD patient will be very ill and thus, very contagious.

For transmission information not in a healthcare setting, go here:


http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html

Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with

-blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, feces, vomit, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola
-objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus
-infected animals
-Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, food. However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats.

Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and the family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected blood or body fluids of sick patients.

During outbreaks of Ebola, the disease can spread quickly within healthcare settings (such as a clinic or hospital). Exposure to Ebola can occur in healthcare settings where hospital staff are not wearing appropriate protective equipment, including masks, gowns, and gloves and eye protection.


You are still overreacting and misreading the facts.

[kestrel91316]

14. People are routinely getting ebola by touching victims.

We unconsciously touch our faces/eyes/noses/mouths hundreds of times a day. It's child's play to contaminate your hands, and then child's play to infect yourself after that.

And fomites. Never forget the fomites.

[Mnemosyne]

2. What constitutes household contact?

From link:

Close contact is defined as

being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of an EVD patient or within the patient’s room or care area for a prolonged period of time (e.g., health care personnel, household members) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment (i.e., standard, droplet, and contact precautions; see Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations); or
having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD patient while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Some Risk of Exposure

Household contact with an EVD patient
Other close contact with an EVD patient in health care facilities or community settings

snip

[kestrel91316]

3. Yep. The CDC's own website acknowledges the danger of something as simple as a handshake.

[morningfog]

8. To a health care worker with a EVD patient. That is an important qualifier.

Until someone is so bad off that they are a "patient," the chances of transmission through a handshake are practically non-existent.

[pnwmom]

11. In Liberia, they're taking the risk of handshake transmission very seriously.

They encourage everyone to constantly use hand sanitizers and to avoid unnecessary hand contact.

The risk isn't "practically non-existent."

[kestrel91316]

4. Scary factoids:

Ebola virus can linger in the environment in contaminated proteinaceous debris for AT LEAST 48 hours.

Virus found in vaginal fluids and semen of recovered patients for up to 3 months.

Handshake spread.

[Aerows]

5. The virulence of this strain is getting downplayed

and I fear it is to our peril.

There are a shitload of people getting infected by it, including health care workers which should alarm the public. If health care workers, who know more about PPE than regular joes are still contracting it, then every day joes need to be cautious.

[kestrel91316]

9. It only takes 1-10 virus particles to cause an infection.

I don't think it gets more infectious than that, right??

I mean really - I am angry about public health officials saying "it can't happen here" and bragging about American Exceptionalism (TM) in healthcare (which was proven a joke by the nurse who dropped the ball about the Liberian origin of the guy).

[pnwmom]

12. Thanks for the reality check, kestrel91316. I think there's a lot of false bravado going on. nt

[kestrel91316]

13. There sure is. And it is a grave disservice to the public, no matter how well-intentioned.

[AverageJoe90]

15. There's a lot of exaggeration going on as well.....in fact, far more of that than any false bravado.

From all I've read, and that's really the last thing we need. Yes, I'm all for being safe rather than sorry. If the Feds need to ban air travel to West Africa for a while, then so be it. If they need to nationalize hospitals in certain areas, so be it. Et cetera.

We just can't afford either brushing it off, or mass panic even more than that.

[Barack_America]

10. Why don't you check on how available simple gloves have been in Liberia.

That's why health care workers got infected.

[PADemD]

6. Just don't touch the walls.

“Don’t touch the walls!” a Western medical technician yelled out. “Totally infected.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/africa/dont-touch-the-walls-ebola-fears-infect-hospital.html?_r=0