Ebola is in the headlines again as Central Africa faces an Ebola outbreak whose case numbers have risen faster than any other outbreak of the disease to date. With players and fans from outbreak areas attending packed World Cup games, how worried should the average American be?
Few people understand what Ebola is or how you contract and treat it. Starting 8 to 10 days after exposure to the virus, “dry” symptoms appear, including fever, headaches, fatigue, muscle aches and sore throat. “Wet” symptoms follow, primarily vomiting and severe diarrhea. Late-stage disease can cause hemorrhaging, liver and kidney failure.
Treatment options for the currently circulating Bundibugyo strain are limited. The Zaire strain that ravaged West Africa in 2014 through 2016 now has a vaccine and can be treated with monoclonal antibodies, which were also used successfully in the 2022 Ugandan outbreak of the Sudan strain. For Bundibugyo, this leaves intensive supportive care — IV fluids, electrolyte balancing, blood pressure control — as the best hope, the earlier the better.
This sounds terrifying, and the media has been known to stoke fear with graphic photos and high mortality statistics accompanying headlines such as “VIRAL SPREAD: Ebola feared to have hit ANOTHER continent with two suspected cases in Brazil as outbreak leaves officials scrambling.”
Yet many are unaware that, from a transmission standpoint, Ebola is almost the opposite of COVID: far more lethal, yet far harder to catch.
It is harder to catch because, unlike COVID, which transmits through the air, it only spreads through direct contact with actively symptomatic people. You can get it by touching infected blood or bodily fluids such as vomit, sweat, feces or semen. It also contaminates medical equipment, surfaces and clothing. Deceased victims are highly contagious, and the virus can remain active for up to a year in sperm, making continued monitoring crucial.
Despite its low transmissibility, Ebola is proving hard to contain in Central Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been hit hardest, is an active war zone. Armed rebel groups limit the ability of international humanitarian teams to trace cases, create isolation centers and distribute protective gear.
Despite these challenges, the real risk of contracting Ebola at the World Cup approaches zero — and it’s even lower for the average American. Experts are far more worried about mass gatherings spreading measles, flu, foodborne illnesses and sexually-transmitted infections.
On top of this is layered community distrust of foreign health workers. Many Ebola patients who enter isolation wards never come out. Rumors circulate that doctors are killing patients or harvesting organs. Dead bodies remain highly contagious, and many families view biosecure burials as dehumanizing because they can involve spraying bodies with chlorine solution, enclosing them in plastic bags and burying them quickly without traditional mourning rituals.
Public health messaging in the current outbreak has been measured and reassuring. The Centers for Disease Control has emphasized that it knows “what it takes to control, contain, and end an Ebola outbreak.” And while the global containment effort has been hampered by funding cuts, PPE shortages and testing delays, the World Health Organization, benefiting from lessons learned in previous outbreaks, has strengthened its response infrastructure.
The Ebola outbreak in Central Africa is real and deserves serious attention. But attention and panic are not the same thing. The challenge is keeping fear proportional to risk. And this matters not just for individuals but because public panic can drive rushed, ill-conceived policy.
History shows why this distinction matters. During the Zaire outbreak of 2014 through 2016 — despite the fact that only 11 among 320 million Americans were treated for the virus — upwards of 73% of American voters ranked the danger of Ebola as “extremely or very important.” In the week leading up to the November 2014 elections, House and Senate candidates ran 734 ads citing the Ebola threat, linking it to everything from immigration rules to ISIS. Restrictive quarantines and other ill-advised measures followed, including the widely publicized detention of nurse Kaci Hickox after she returned from treating patients in Sierra Leone — despite showing no symptoms and having tested negative.
Ebola remains one of the world’s most frightening diseases. It is also one of the hardest to catch. Appreciating the distinction between perceived and actual risk can help us respond to outbreaks with vigilance rather than panic —and remind us not to lose sight of more mundane health threats like the uncontrolled hypertension putting tens of millions of Americans at risk of heart attack and stroke each year.
Kelly Rogers Victor, Ph.D., MPH, MPP is a writer and consultant on nutrition, health policy and public health. Her columns appear regularly in The Detroit News. Reach her at Kelly@upstreamhealthconsulting.com.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Ebola and the World Cup: How worried should Americans really be? | Rogers Victor
Reporting by Kelly Rogers Victor / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kelly Rogers Victor | USA TODAY Network
