Busting the Top 5 Ebola myths that are causing fear and hysteria around the world

After nearly nine months since the start of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the news keeps changing day to day, and even hour by hour.

At this point, however, fear and myths surrounding Ebola appears to have spread faster than the virus itself. Between the continued rising number of new cases in Africa and the botched official responses, it is a lot to take in for the general public and has caused unnecessary hysteria.

But let’s all take a deep breath and remember that while there are now 9,000 cases of Ebola confirmed by the World Health Organization, only a handful of cases have been reported outside of Africa, most of which have been health care workers who are battling the virus on the front lines. Accurate and timely information helps fight not only the disease itself but also side-effects like paranoia, and help us take a more rational approach towards the disease.

Here now we separate the fact from the fiction and dispel some of the most common myths associated with Ebola.

Myth #1: Ebola is highly contagious

Ebola cannot be spread through the air or by water, and can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids.

This has been the key problem in the hot zone of West Africa where the disease has become embedded. Care for the infected usually rests on family members who are not wearing proper protection and are in contact with highly-infected bodily fluids like vomit and diarrhea.

Health care workers in hospitals and treatment centres are also at risk working in close contact with Ebola patients who may produce projectile droplets that may contain the virus.

However, the general public should not be worried about catching the disease during normal, daily, community activities like walking through a shopping mall or going to school.

Rachael Jones, an infectious disease specialist from University of Illinois told NPR Radio in an interview this week that “particles are not going to travel hundreds of feet or hundreds of meters to cause an infection.”

So this means that travellers returning from other regions of Africa should not be shunned like in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where parents pulled their children out of school over concerns their principal had taken a trip to southern Africa, or the Texas college rejecting student applicants coming from Nigeria.

Myth #2: Chances are that Ebola will spread and create a pandemic

According to a recent ABC News - Washington Post poll, 65 per cent of Americans are worried about a possible widespread epidemic in that country.

The WHO said this week that the number of new cases per week could rise tenfold by December, and worst-case scenarios project those numbers may add up to 1.4 million cases by early 2015.

But does this mean the virus will take off like wildfire and spread around the world? Highly unlikely, say virologists. It is much more likely that individual cases, and even small, isolated clusters would pop up outside of Africa – just as we have seen happening already.

However, the reality is that while West African countries are ill-equipped to deal with the spread of viruses like Ebola, developed nations around the world have functioning health systems and associated resources at their disposal that can effectively stop its spread to the general population.

Myth #3: Closing our borders to those traveling from infected areas of West Africa is the best way to prevent further spread of the disease.

Experts believe that if we ban travellers from the affected countries from entering it could potentially send infected travellers underground and make it near impossible to track their movements.

Stopping flights altogether would only further devastate the impoverished African countries that rely on help from the West to stamp out the current outbreak. It would also make it difficult to get relief workers and supplies into the region.

Myth #4: Survivors of Ebola are still contagious

According to the CDC, once someone makes a recovery, they are no longer able to transmit the virus. With that said, however, the Ebola virus has been found in the semen of patients who have regained their health up to three months later.

Those who do recover from Ebola also appear to get immunity for about 10 years, as their body makes the antibodies against the virus. But it’s not yet known if this immunity translates to other species of Ebola.

Myth #5: Ebola is likely to become an airborne disease

All the epidemiological studies show no evidence that Ebola is airborne-transmitted between humans.

While it can’t be ruled out completely, scientists have never found a virus that has completely changed their mode of transmission and do not believe that Ebola will undergo such a drastic mutation to become a respiratory transmissible virus.

A case in point, the highly successful H5N1 avian influenza that has spread among billions of birds around the world has not changed its DNA to transmit differently than it has for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years.

While it is important to be vigilant to avoid contracting any disease, there’s little reason for Canadians to panic about the spread of Ebola at this point, and understanding the facts is a key first step.