The deadly Ebola virus, which has ravaged West Africa since December 2013, is starting to appear around the world, threatening to start pandemic. Many nations are receiving patients medically evacuated from West Africa (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway). However, for Spain receiving a medically evacuated patient turned into its first Ebola case. A health care worker contracted the virus while working on a medically evacuated Ebola patient. In the United States, three states have accepted Ebola patients due to their biocontainment units: Georgia (Atlanta), Maryland (Bethesda), and Nebraska (Omaha). A fourth similar biocontainment unit is located in Montana. The first case in the United States appeared in Dallas, Texas, from a Liberian man visiting family. Subsequently, two nurses contracted Ebola, and one of them was allowed to board an airplane and fly to Ohio to visit family. Ohio now has 18 quarantined people who have come in contact with this second health care worker.
According to health officials, Ebola is only contagious when a patient is symptomatic. The first symptom is a fever which devolves into vomiting, diarrhea, and internal and external bleeding. Moreover, the virus is only communicable through close contact with infected body fluids, with blood, feces, and vomit being the most contagious. Unlike the flu, Ebola is not airborne at this time, so it cannot be spread through casual contact, like sitting next to someone at a movie theater. Last, the Ebola virus only has a dry life of several hours and is cleaned using bleach and other hospital disinfectants.
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