10 things every Hoosier should know about Ebola

In recent weeks, we've all become flash experts on Ebola, the disease that once seemed confined to Africa. But ever since a Liberian man fell ill with the potent virus in Texas, the prospect of the disease spreading has kept us on tenterhooks.

That worst-case scenario happened late last week, when a nurse who had cared for the man was diagnosed with the illness. This morning a second health care worker at the hospital tested positive for the disease.

So far, these are the only three people who have fallen ill on U.S. soil. And health and public safety officials are doing their best to gear up to protect us all in the advent that other cases arise.

Until then, misinformation about the disease is swirling.

Here are 10 things you need to know.

1. There have been no cases of Ebola in Indiana. Health officials recognize diseases are just a plane (or bus or train) ride away. So all it would take to have a case of Ebola in Indiana would be for a person who had been exposed to the disease to travel here. But that has not happened and it's entirely possible it will not happen with this outbreak.

2. Ebola is not transmitted by casual contact between people in the same way as, say, the common cold, experts say. Cold viruses can be transmitted by inhaling an airborne virus or touching a surface infected by germs. Ebola, however, can be transmitted only through bodily fluids — such as blood, saliva, sweat, urine or feces — of an infected person or if a person touches an object that has the body fluid of an infected person.

3. The virus does not become communicable until a person starts experiencing symptoms, which can include fever, vomiting, muscle aches, cramps, bleeding and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms can begin within two to 21 days of the person's exposure to an infected person. So to be on the safe side, health officials ask people who know they have been in contact with a sick person to enter a 21-day quarantine.

4. Although there have been no cases of Ebola in Indiana, local and state health and public safety officials say they have been preparing should the disease appear. The Indiana State Department of Health has held webinars for local health providers and has spread the word that they should routinely be asking all patients about travel outside the country. Indianapolis public safety officials have been assessing whether the medical community here is sufficiently equipped to handle cases and are trying to address any gaps.

5. There have been two cases of Ebola contracted in the United States, that of Texas nurse Nina Pham and of a second Texas health worker who caught the disease from a patient, Thomas Duncan. Thomas Duncan contracted the virus in Liberia shortly before he traveled to Dallas, where he was diagnosed. Spain has had one case of a health care provider who contracted the disease from a patient, a priest who had been in Liberia.

6. Three countries have seen widespread transmission of Ebola — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Among those countries, nearly 8,400 people have fallen ill and more than 4,000 have died since the start of this outbreak in Guinea in March. Senegal and Nigeria have also seen related cases of Ebola, but experts think that the outbreaks there have ended. If those countries remain disease-free through early next week, the World Health Organization will declare the outbreaks in Senegal and Nigeria over. In September, there were about 70 cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but those are not thought to be related to the larger outbreak.

7. Africa is a big continent, and Ebola has been seen in just five countries. That means that most countries in Africa have not experienced any cases of Ebola. Liberia, for instance, is more than 9,000 kilometers or about 5,600 miles away from Somalia to the east and South Africa to the south. That's more than twice the distance from New York City to Salt Lake City, with much worse roads.

8. There is no vaccine against Ebola. Nor any targeted treatment. However, experience has shown that patients who receive early supportive care with rehydration have improved survival rates. The mortality rate in this outbreak had been around 50 percent, but on Tuesday the World Health Organization released new information, saying the survival rate had dipped to about 30 percent.

9. This is not a new disease. Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's thought to have originated in bats, and there are five different species of the virus, all but one of which can cause disease in humans. The fifth can sicken nonhuman primates but not people. While there have been other outbreaks of Ebola among humans, this one is larger than all the others combined in terms of cases and deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

10. West Africa is not fighting this battle alone. The U.S. government has committed more than $350 million to fight the outbreak and is deploying troops to build centers where Ebola patients can be treated. Help has come from numerous other places as well. On Tuesday Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife committed $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help fight the disease. If you want to help, Charity Navigator has identified a number of places doing work in the area.

Yes, it's all very scary. That said, statistically speaking, it is far more likely that unless you travel to West Africa you will be infected with influenza in the coming months than with Ebola. Each year in the United States from 20 to 50 percent of the population comes down with a case of influenza, and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized because of that disease.

Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter @srudavsky.