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Rub an eye, pick at your teeth, put a stick of gum or a mint in your mouth after having grabbed the door handle, used the handrail, pushed the elevator button...and you could be dead without even knowing how you got it.

Yep. Although something like handling dead bodies is an even higher-risk behavior that few of us are in the habit of doing.

For the 'those are third worlders, we're superior and it can't happen here'

Of course it can happen here. However, high-level biocontainment patient care units here really are superior and, as long as they aren't overwhelmed, can "handle" the cases presented to them (without allowing the infection to spread beyond that population).

You don't have to handle dead bodies to get sick. You don't have to have sex with anyone/thing (another popular misconception). The "bodily fluids" buzzword has been construed to mean intimate contact--but that is not necessary. Contact with the fluids, deposited on a surface, depending on duration, temperature, direct sunlight, can be enough for you to pick up a viral load that will infect you (ID50 is 1-10 virons).

Let's say you are walking along and step in puke. Ick. (Most people really don't watch where they are putting their feet unless they anticipate an obstacle).

You go into a public restroom and clean off your shoes with a paper towel.

You reach out grab the handle and turn the water on to wash your hands, wash them, and turn the water off.

You contaminated the handle when you turned the water on, and recontaminated your fingers when you turned it off.

It's not just there for you, but the next person, too.

If you rub your eye, your nose, pick at your teeth, or any of a number of little things people do, you run a severe risk of being infected.

That's how dangerous this disease is.

I'm not saying that to panic anyone, after all it is only a level 4 biohazard. (Oh wait, that is as bad as it gets.)

The whole "bodily fluids" thing has been construed to mean a bloodborne or sexually acquired pathogen. However, with Ebola, saliva, vomit, mucous, tears, sweat, and feces, all count along with vaginal secretions and semen.

Contaminated surfaces count (called "fomites") and are capable of infecting the unwary.

I'm just trying to make people conscious of the gestures they make which could infect them, and the surfaces they touch without even thinking about it.

If this disease surfaces here in the US, maybe that consciousness will save some lives.

BTW, there are a whopping 22 beds in those high level (civilian) biocontainment units. I do not think it will take much to overwhelm them, especially when the first case that walks into an ER will probably result in that many people getting infected before it is realized what is going on.

” Yep. Although something like handling dead bodies is an even higher-risk behavior that few of us are in the habit of doing. “

Right now in Monrovia, the taxicabs are the hotzones.

Guess how many cabbies in NYC disinfect their cabs after every fare...

Ever ride in a cab and touch the doorhandle, seat, or armrest? Congratulations, you just touched a ‘dead body’.