[ElayneJ]

Do symptoms suddenly appear, or are they gradual? At what point is the noncontagious person contagious? Is it when the fever begins, when the person’s temperature is 1 degree above normal? 2? What if someone begins to develop a fever when he is at dinner? Is that person not contagious when he walks into the restaurant but contagious when he walks out?

There must be a starting point. If this could be articulated, the reluctance to quarantine would make more sense.

[steve86]

The patients treated in this country tended to feel "off" for a day or two then got hit with symptoms pretty abruptly. The pre-symptomatic blahs were not distinctive enough to differentiate them from a normal everyday range of feelings.

There is a lot of patient-to-patient variation so some of your other questions can't be answered. For example, some patients never become febrile. It would not be possible to make hard and fast rules that are going to be appropriate in each instance during the pre-symptomatic period.

[Gadsden1st]

13% of ebola patients dont run a fever.