By Connor Loughran ’15

Q: Can Ebola can be spread through the air, water, or casual contact with an infected person?

• Answer: Ebola can only spread via close physical contact with an infected person’s feces, vomit, blood, sweat, semen, or other bodily fluids

Q: Does treating Ebola patients in America puts Americans at risk?

• Answer: Because the CDC has a mandatory isolation period for anyone who had or may have had contact with an infected person, the risk of spreading Ebola is slim-to-none. Additionally, hospitals are able to quarantine patients, and the disease is only spread through close physical contact, making it even more difficult to spread.

Q: Is this the first time there has been a major Ebola outbreak?

• Answer: Though this is the largest outbreak on record, Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. There have been multiple small outbreaks since then, but none as severe current outbreak, which as of November 5^th, has had 13,567 cases, and 4,960 deaths.

Q: Is there an Ebola vaccine?

• Answer: Though there is currently no official vaccine for Ebola that has proven effective, multiple vaccines are in development and are being tested. The most promising of these is ZMapp, which contains antibodies for Ebola and was used in the treatment of both Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, without any proven results.