Health officials keep saying ebola is 100% contracted through bodily fluids why is that?

It can survive outside the body for a long time and when people are sick with it they are leaking body fluids all over like gangbusters. It can enter through mucous membranes. That’s why it’s so contagious but not “airborne” by the strict medical definition. Practically speaking I think we can call it airborne.

As far as I understand the situation, It’s unknown whether the healthcare worker was from the first visit where he was sent home, or the second visit AFTER they had realized he had Ebola and the isolation protocols were put in place. If it was from the first visit, the healthcare workers would have had no idea of the Ebola risk to themselves. If it was later, then it’s likely someone was lax in following procedure (e.g. inadvertently rubbed his or her itchy eye or didn’t take off the protective suit properly).

I highly doubt that it’s airborne and the public is deliberately being misinformed to avoid panic. That’s a recipe for billions of people dying.

I’m not sure Fluther (much as I love it) or any social site is going to be able to answer this question. Medical experts are still trying to figure out this horrible disease.

There was a fairly detailed discussion about this with Dr. LePook (sp?) on Face the Nation.

Apparently it was from the second time he was hospitalized and they really went all out to try to save his life, including dialysis.

A procedure like that carries a much higher risk because it’s much more invasive and involving filtering blood etc. etc.

Evidently something as simple as not following protocol EXACTLY when removing one’s gloves (or something equally mundane) can carry with it a risk of exposure.

It was also pointed out that there are four centers in the USA which typically handle the most dangerous of communicable diseases of all types (Dallas is not one of them) and the entire staff at these centers repeatedly goes through drills on the proper protocol and procedures.

Most of the recent Ebola patients were treated at one of these centers and there was no infection of any healthcare workers afterward, so it’s not likely that something about Ebola has essentially changed.

Also, it’s highly likely that in the future, once diagnosed, Ebola patients will be transferred for ongoing care to one of these four centers with the most experience and training in handling highly infectious diseases.

It makes sense to me that the more experience a staff, as a whole, has in dealing with these highly contagious diseases, the less the likelihood of simple errors.

Also, keep in mind, that it was the intake nurse at Dallas who failed to communicate the fact that this man had JUST returned from W. Africa, to the rest of the medical staff and therefore he was sent home. It was a simple error which almost anyone could make in a busy ER.

But, its also highly unlikely that it would have happened at any one of the four centers with far more experience in this particular realm of medicine.

For those wanting more detailed info on these four centers mentioned, just Google “Why Ebola patients are getting treatment in
Nebraska?”

That takes you to an excellent article on the NPR site.

The ebola virus leads to the disease ebola haemorrhagic fever. Being a haemorrhagic disease, bodily fluids are leaking out of the body at many sites, leading to essential contamination of the whole room the person is in. As @ARE_you_kidding_me said, the virus is able to survive outside the body for quite some time, so a health care worker can become infected after touching a bed rail or sheet that came into contact with bodily fluids hours earlier.

If I could take a stab in the dark, based on infection control technique I’ve seen in the hospitals I’ve worked in, it was likely a slight error in procedure while removing the personal protective equipment (PPE).