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Ebola Education

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sharing information with Americans about the Ebola virus in an effort to quell an increasingly concerned public. Two nurses who treated the Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from Ebola in a hospital in Dallas have been diagnosed with the disease. Both are reportedly recovering from the virus. And, a healthcare worker who handled a specimen from Duncan has been quarantined on board a cruise ship. A doctor on the ship describes the worker as in good health and showing no signs of the disease.

Fever is one of the earliest symptoms of Ebola. Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain are the others. The virus is transmitted through bodily fluids that can enter the body through cuts, abrasions, the mouth, nose, eyes, or reproductive organs. It can survive outside the body in dried form on a doorknob or tabletop for several hours, and the virus is capable of surviving in a wet state on a surface at room-temperature for a few days.

Ebola’s incubation period lasts an average of eight to 10 days, but it can last as long as 21 days.