I’ve read that it takes anywhere between 2-21 days for the symptoms to show up. That’s a big variation.
I don’t fully understand what is meant by “incubation”. Does that mean that the individual germs have to somehow mature before they can pass on to somebody else? Does it mean that’s how long it takes for there to be enough germs in the body fluids to infect somebody else? Does it mean that’s when the germs would come out in ways that people could get it (like sweat, blood, etc)?
I read an article saying that the virus is still in semen 7 months after the symptoms are all gone. How does that fit with the “you can’t infect somebody if you’re not exhibiting symptoms” claim?
I wish there was somebody we could trust to give us the real low-down.
I don’t fully understand what is meant by “incubation”. Does that mean that the individual germs have to somehow mature before they can pass on to somebody else? Does it mean that’s how long it takes for there to be enough germs in the body fluids to infect somebody else? Does it mean that’s when the germs would come out in ways that people could get it (like sweat, blood, etc)?
I'm not a biologist, but I know the following from popular science. If someone catches one virus (one piece of RNA/DNA inside a shell,) it has to become ten; then those ten become a hundred; and so on. Eventually there are so many viruses attacking cells that the patient's body starts noticing that something is askew.
The rate of replication depends on statistical probabilities of a single virion infecting a cell, then on how long does it take to transform the cell into a factory of new virions, and then how many of them are produced, and then on how many are delivered to new cells for attack and further replication.
So if someone picks up just one virion, it is likely to lay dormant, or to be destroyed. If someone picks up ten, one may survive and infect a cell. Often an infected cell spews thousands, if not millions, new virions. Still it takes a lot of damage to body's cells to make a person sick. It all depends on how much one got infected in the first place; how strong was the army of the virus when it landed. If a sick person bites someone, that may result in the shortest incubation time, as millions of virions get into the blood. If a sick person sneezes, and someone 20 yards away inhales a few droplets, then it will take weeks to get the virus's quantity to the dangerous level.
Consequently, the patient's danger is proportional to concentration of virus in his body. A freshly infected person is hardly contagious at all. A person who is nearly dead (as it was that woman that this Liberian was carrying) is most dangerous, as virus would be coming out in her sweat, in her breath, in her cough, and accumulating on her skin as the sweat evaporates. Normally an intact skin is a good barrier against dangerous microorganisms. However any contact with one's eyes, nose, mouth will transport all that danger directly into the body. (That's why we are told to wash hands.) Also any scratches, cuts, or abrasions are capable of breaking the skin barrier and delivering the dangerous organism into cells, and then into the blood that feeds them.