I think this is one of those situations where public health professionals have a different definition of "contagious" than the rest of us. Paul's correct in pointing out that you can in theory be exposed to Ebola as a result of shaking hands with someone at a party--it's very unlikely, but it's possible. That's very different from the great lengths you have to go to to get HIV from someone. But I agree that there's unfounded panic in the U.S. over Ebola, and in reality it's not going to spread in the U.S. like it has been spreading in Africa, because we have a strong public health system.

Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

...In a fluid. Bodily fluids don't survive for days in the environment of Dallas. (usually).

did you READ THE REPORT!

Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebol...

The report is not about bodily fluids in Dallas's environment, is it?

Please stop spamming your panic and lack of reading comprehension.

This article is about the general communicability of AIDS vs. Ebola

Their justification is that AIDS can live undetected for years. That has nothing to do with contagiousness- which deals with the ways and ease its transmitted.
AIDS is considered a hard contact or class 3 contagion
Ebola is a class 1 or soft contact contagion.

you are cherry picking. It can survive on surfaces IF the temps are less then 40degrees c and at most 40-45% humidity. the classification you gave is wrong as well. By the time sweat (soft contact) is capable of transmitting Ebola the person would have a high viral count and would be vomiting, bleeding and more and NOT out and about shaking hands at cocktail parties

"By the time sweat (soft contact) is capable of transmitting Ebola the
person would have a high viral count and would be vomiting, bleeding and
more and NOT out and about shaking hands at cocktail parties"

This is the crucial key point that keeps getting left out.

I would like to see the science /data proving that.

Feel free to hit the Google.

So what do I google "how would I feel going to a cocktail party in the various stages of ebola infection"?

Exactlly

How do you even know this is true?

Read up on it. "Science" magazine, for one, has made a large collection of articles and papers on Ebola available without subscription on its Web site.

It was a trick question, you don't know it's true! How do you know how contagious ebola is at the various stages of infection? Tell me, rather than this "look it up" crap. The information you're positing may or may not be true, but it is most definitely unverifiable! I suggest you make an argument that is easier to verify.

Would you like to argue about whether the earth is flat or round, too?

read what I said. How do you know that someone who is contagious won't want to be around other people?

Because they're sick as dogs? Just a guess.

Look, be my guest and scare yourself to death, but you're looking increasingly silly as time goes on and nobody but the two nurses is getting sick.

"Just a guess."

So what about all those facts that are so easy to google? Why are you guessing if there are facts about ebola contagiousness at the various levels of infection including ebola contagiousness for cocktail parties on google?

Oh yeah, that's right. You were making shit up and I didn't buy it. So when I pressed you for information you said you "guess". Turns out it wasn't easy to google. It wasn't even on google... because you made it up.

God, I am so sick. I better go to Walmart, buy a soda out of the machine at the door or get a sip of water out of the fountain. Go to the bathroom. touch a couple grocery carts, touch couch/cold meds, pay the cashier with some germy money while she touches all the things I just picked up, touch the keypad, run my hands along the register, leave my empty cart at the front door for a young woman with her little kid as I carry my meds to the car. Open the side door and walk outside. Throw away the box for the anti-diarrhea medicine that I just bought by pushing the garbage door open. Finally, I go to my car and realize that I am almost out of gas. Off to the busy gas station where I disease up the gas pump for a full 5 minutes before driving home.

Nobody ever got AIDS pumping gas, buying a soda, or buying something at Walmart. Ebola is much more deadly and much more contagious than AIDS. You can get Ebola just sitting in the same room as someone with it. There are CDC studies that confirm this.

Hmm, for some reason I think it's harder to get straight answers on the contagiousness of ebola at a cocktail party than it is to get straight answers on the shape of the planet we live on.

Which of these relates to how you'll feel at various stages of infection (including whether you want to attend cocktail parties or not)?

Seriously, dude, stop wetting your pants and use your common sense, if you have any. Read the "Science" articles about how the virus multiplies and moves through the system. Then stop and think about how many people got infected from casual contact with Duncan in this country, and then think about what the toll would be in Africa if it were so easily transmitted.

The hot humid conditions in Africa actually kill the virus when it hits the air. In America, especially in winter when it would be cold and dry, the virus would move much quicker. Look, I'm not trying to sound ridiculous, so surely you get my point.

Yes, I get your point, and I truly feel sorry for you. Look at the real, live evidence of what's actually happened and stop creating fantasies to freak out over.

Oh, and btw, hate to bust one of your faves, but the virus lives *longer* in moisture than it does in dry conditions. Really, get a grip.

Actually, you're incorrect. The virus easily lives and thrives in cool dry conditions. That is why they burned the primate facility down where the outbreak occurred in 1989. In that facility, the air was cool and very dry and the virus spread between hallways and closed doors. This is not fantasy.

Look it up yourself, what I'm saying is well established. Try not to prove your ignorance further.

and about getting a grip? I already have a grip, and its around your argument's weak unfounded throat.

It's also why the virus doesn't seem to spread as easily in Africa in the open air. In Africa transmission is usually because of contact because in the air it dies. In an environment that the virus easily withstands it lives for hours in open air. Even your fellow dumbass Tracie Marie knows this is true.

Er, that's what I said. You're the one that said it lasts longer in dry conditions.

You have your hands wrapped around your own privates out of your imagined fears, is what I see. Makes you look very foolish indeed.

cool dry conditions I meant, not cool humid conditions. So you were wrong, I typed that sentence wrong so I'll edit it.

No need for the inappropriate discussion, I reported your post. Anyway, I was right when I said it lasts longer in dry conditions, look it up.

Why are people trying to underplay that danger of Ebola?
Because it supports the position of the government to NOT shut down trade and travel from Africa! Worth $billions! do you want to be the petri dish of just how communicable it can be ... just for cheap coffee?

why are you lying and playing UP the danger of Ebola?

Until all is played out, I choose to err on the side of caution.
It is the governments position to ALWAYS downplay danger to minimize panic- a good thing, usually. That same government depends on people like me to raise questions and awareness that it may not be so safe. Its the same coin just different sides.

no, you chose to lie, fear monger and misrepresent . You do not even comprehend what you read and links you post. You are either willfully ignorant or stupid...which is it

What lie?
That it can be caught from a sneeze?
CDC says so.
IT can be caught from dried virus on surfaces?
CDC says so..
That quarantine is effective?
Africa says so, they quarantine whole populations.
Most of the rest of the world that refuse transit from affected regions say so.

Are you willfully obfuscating or oblivious?
Which is it?

with caveats that you left out. That is lying.

What caveat: That you MAY get sick not WILL get sick? That is a given for most intelligent people.
That is not a lie, at worst it is implied and therefore a practical omission.

Actually currently the government position is already on the cautious side.

We are talking about Ebola, not a highly contagious zombie virus. It is difficult to spread without prolonged contact with large volume of bodily fluids, it is also only transmitted when someone is symptomatic.

People who are symptomatic (which is the only time where ebola can be transmitted) are vomiting, crapping their pants, and too weak to move. Unless you come into contact with those people's bodily fluid you are not going to catch Ebola. Actually even if you do come into contact it depends on the type of contact. A slight splatter on unbroken skin most likely won't cause any problem, unless it touches the mucus membrane. However normal precautions such as keeping yourself sanitary as always is recommended.

Unless someone with Ebola cover you in vomit or other type of bodily fluid, the chance you would catch it is so extremely low that I am more afraid of being bitten by a dog and get rabies.

Meaning the highest risk group in the U.S is going to be healthcare workers, since they have to take care of the patient for long periods of time, and deal with significant quantities of bodily fluids from a patient. The general population should worry about look both way when crossing the street and washing their hands.

If that's the case why are medical staff in HAZMAT suits?
Why were contacts of the Ebola victim not only quarantined but quarantined separately?
Why is the government creating an Ebola task force
Why will there be a special military unit created for 72 hr. response?
This is a much bigger threat than you want to believe.
I don't trust our government when it won't protect us just because corporate earnings might be hurt.

better safe than sorry.

your hairs on fire and the sky is falling

1) Three countries are having an outbreak, not the entire African continent.

2) Airlines already stopped direct flights to those three countries out of fear of possible law suits. In fact the Duncan case he flew in from Belgium.

3) Even if you stop flights to Africa, people can move to Spain, India, and other nations and still get to the U.S. Infecting more people in the process. When people panic they make selfish decisions, even if it means infecting more people.

4) If we shut down both air and sea routes (on the U.S side), untold trillions in economic damage, and it doesn't mean smugglers or human traffickers won't bring Ebola to the U.S. It just make it harder to track. There is no such thing as being able to shut out all traffic.

The more you try to isolate yourself instead of facing the problem, eventually there will be no one for you to isolate when it does spread to the U.S. and I don't mean spreading to healthcare workers, I mean an actual outbreak.

Also, people need to be able to get in and get out. Not many healthcare workers would volunteer for a one way ticket to the affected countries if they are stuck there, especially to those with a family.

Its not flight issues. Their passport established country of origin or travel. It is clear by visa registration where they have been. If they have been in an affected country within three weeks of travel to the US, travel can be denied.

You forget, we still have trade relations with these countries as well. What do we do if a container freighter comes to our ports and brings infected crew? There's no visa registration in those instances.

Actually, that means you are cherry picking Tracey. PJSL said the straight up truth, easily verifiable. (if the query is "how contagious is ebola and aids)
You're putting in unlikely scenarios which serve only to distract from the situation. You don't know how a person with ebola feels and what that means in regards to how contagious they are.

So you are one of those alarmists trying to incite fear and hatred of people from infected areas. Ok fine, let's quarantine Texas. Build the dang fence we can't have those Texans crossing the border into the rest of America with all their Texas ebola and such.

Absolutely NOT

I believe we should be cautious

Why are people trying to underplay that danger of Ebola?
Because it supports the position of the government to NOT shut down trade and travel from Africa! Worth $billions! do you want to be the petri dish of just how communicable it can be ... just for cheap coffee?

Ebola is actually a class 4 infectious agent according to the international standard biohazard scale. So is Marburg, Hantavirus, and Lassa fever. AIDS is level 3, along with SARS, tuberculosis, yellow fever and malaria. Level 2 is normal viruses such as hepatitis (A,B & C), the flu, mumps, measles, etc. Level 1 is chicken pox and the common cold - as well as most bacterial infections.

Except that neither chicken pox or the common cold are caused by bacteria.

No, they are not caused by bacteria, but most bacterial infections are level 1 agents. There are some that are higher, but in general most bacterial infections are fairly easily cured with antibiotics.

*We have never found a cure for a virus in the history of medicine.*

We can fight them, make vaccines for them, prevent the infection in the first place, etc. But once infected, all we can really do strengthen the body's own immune system and hope for the best, therefore most viral illnesses are considered a higher threat level than say, a bacterial infection, with roughly the same symptoms.

Generally speaking the curable/incurable differentiation is a big deal and adds greatly to the threat level (as does infectivity, severity, lethality, etc.)

You're dumb.