If it feels like the whole thing kind of quietly faded from headlines since then, there's a reason for it. Ebola is contagious, but actually tough to spread. In fact, the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy makes it clear that on average, a person with Ebola transmits it to fewer than one person. It's a concept that comes with a math problem (R0<1), and of course it does. If the disease itself wasn't bad enough, now algebra had to get involved.
Ebola is only transmitted through physical touch or bodily fluids, and even then, only when the victim is "shedding the virus." Why is it so deadly in the Congo, then? Because it's hard to have a state-of-the-art healthcare system when you have no money, no resources, and are constantly under attack by militant groups.
The two American nurses who got Ebola from helping infected patients in West Africa back in 2014? They're fine. They did not, in fact, "suffer the consequences." And while they did receive an experimental drug called ZMapp in their treatment, the most likely reason they made it was isolation and proper medical attention -- the kind of care simply not available in the Congo right now. The problem isn't an exotic super-disease, the problem is poverty and infrastructure. But what's entertaining about that?
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