7 Misconceptions about Ebola

With the first case of Ebola in Sierra Leone being reported in Kailahun district in May, it has since spread to Kenema district, which is now the worst-hit area in the country. There are more than 45 patients inside the Kenema treatment centre, which is stretched to capacity. Like many communities in Sierra Leone, people around the world are trying to understand the disease and clear the rumours, myths and misconceptions surrounding it. The list below tries to clear some of these misconceptions by providing a brief explanation of the disease.

1. Myth: Even if you beat Ebola, you can still pass on the virus to others.

Truth: Only people who are exhibiting Ebola symptoms can pass the virus on to others.

2. Myth: Ebola can be treated with antibiotics (or onions, or condensed milk, or…)

Truth: While antibiotics may cure bacterial infections, they don’t kill viral infections. Currently, there is neither a cure nor a vaccine for the Ebola virus.

Instead, there is an experimental serum called ZMapp, which contains antibodies designed to help block the virus. Before the 2014 Ebola outbreak, it had only ever been tested on monkeys and has not been approved for human use. American Ebola patients Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol decided to risk it and take the experimental drug, and early reports are cautiously optimistic about their improving conditions. However, it’s unclear what role (if any) the drug is playing in their recovery.

3. Myth: This is the first major outbreak of Ebola.

Truth: Although this is not the first but it is the largest outbreak of Ebola in history. The virus was first diagnosed in humans in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It infected 318 people and had an 88 percent fatality rate. Since then, various strains of the disease have popped up around the African continent, infecting as many as 425 people in 2000 and, most recently, 57 people in 2012.

Since Aug. 4, 2014, the most recent count available, Ebola virus has infected 1,711 people and killed 932 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the virus emerged again this year.

4. Myth: Ebola liquefies your organs, which causes bleeding from the orifices.

Truth: While Ebola symptoms can include bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth, those things only happen in about 20 percent of cases.

The body’s organs are not liquefied. However, when people die from Ebola, it’s usually because the virus causes multi-organ failure and shock. This is because Ebola virus weakens blood vessels, causing internal and sometimes external bleeding. The virus also prevents the body from clotting blood effectively, which would help to stop the bleeding.

5. Myth: Bringing Ebola patients to the South Africa puts South Africans at risk.

Truth: The spread of Ebola is possible not because it’s a uniquely potent virus strain, but because of the healthcare disparity in West Africa.

Gloves, gowns, masks, proper hygiene standards and isolation units are enough to protect healthcare workers from contracting Ebola from their patients. But the countries where Ebola has spread don’t have the adequate resources or facilities to properly treat patients.

Years of war and poverty have left countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia uniquely vulnerable to an outbreak.

6. Myth: International medical teams brought the virus to West Africa.

Truth: This devastating myth may actually be prolonging the Ebola outbreak. The Centres for Disease and Control are coordinating efforts to reach out to community leaders like healers and elders to combat the myth with education about Ebola symptoms and proper treatment in a clinic.

People are told that there is no treatment for the Ebola virus, that the people who are taken to the medical centres will die, and that nobody survives after contracting an infection,” wrote Ngalamulume in an email to The Huffington Post. “It is thus not surprising that many villagers assume that people are being taken to hospital to die, or even that hospitals are killing them.

The death rate of this current Ebola strain (around 55 percent and expected to rise), combined with misinformation about the disease, gives villagers good reason to be sceptical.

7. Myth: Ebola virus is airborne, waterborne or spreads through casual contact.

Truth: Ebola virus spreads when the bodily fluids of an infected person come into contact with the mucous membranes of a non-infected person. That means Ebola virus in fluids like blood, sweat or urine has to come in contact with your eyes, mouth, nostrils, ears, genital area or an open wound in order to infect you.

Therefore, it takes a lot of contact to become infected with the virus, which is why many of the victims of the disease in West Africa are health care workers or family members caring for a sick relative. In Western hospitals, transmission is easily prevented with precautionary measures like face masks, gloves, protective gowns and isolation units.

Health workers in West Africa are teaching community members about the importance of washing hands with soap and water, bringing sick family members to clinics and burying the bodies of people who have died from Ebola to minimize infection risk.

Mbali Radebe