Please help us understand a few things about you.

There is so much we don’t know and are confused about. Depending on what time of the day we read, even on the most prominent medical websites like the CDC or the WHO, your contagious date starts anywhere on the following days from contamination: 1 day, 2 days, 5 days, 6 days, 7 days, all the way to 21 days and you remain contagious for as long as 60 days after the person is cured or 61 days. One article says a man cured of Ebola can infect anyone with his sperm for 7 weeks after he is cured but in a scientific paper it is 90 days though in 98% of the cases the semen was only contagious for 42 days according to the same publication.

I have also found a very interesting sentence dear Ebola that totally confused me. The CDC says:

“Once someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus. However, Ebola virus has been found in semen for up to 3 months. People who recover from Ebola are advised to abstain from sex or use condoms for 3 months.”

So men should refrain from sex because they cannot spread the virus that is still in their semen active and ready to infect? Can you please clarify this sentence or the quote above that the sentence summarized?

I also have another question since there is so much confusion and even the CDC admits that “Because the natural reservoir host of Ebola viruses has not yet been identified, the manner in which the virus first appears in a human at the start of an outbreak is unknown” yet other research and the history of our familiarity with Ebola virus is that it comes from the Fruit Bats.

The interesting thing is that fruit bats do not get sick, have no symptoms, yet infect others.

I find that interesting since the CDC said and the New York Times published the statement that a person cannot infect anyone until he/she has the symptoms. This is in stark contrast to the previously noted statistics that suggests that men who have recovered and are no longer symptomatic, carry active Ebola in their semen for 60 to 90 days.

So if the men have no symptoms (similarly to the bats) but are carriers (similarly to bats), how can they infect when they cannot infect without symptoms? I am confused. Sorry if I am confusing you too dear Ebola.

And finally, originally the CDC suggested that we need to watch out for fever and cough, which later they updated with watching for cough only in terms of the spraying of fluids but then Ebola patients do not seem to cough. However there appears to be a strain of Ebola virus (there are 5 strains: – Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV), Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV), Reston ebolavirus (RESTV), Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV), Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV).) that only infect animals and monkeys where they do sneeze and cough.

So dear Ebola, please tell us about you because we are obviously not capable to discover much about you without your help.

I just watched CNN while having dinner and they were talking about you. The question asked was: should Americans fear you Ebola!? The answer may surprise you. They said: fear the CDC instead! The CDC seems to say one thing one minute and another the second minute and do different from what they instruct. So dear Ebola, please pay a visit to the test tubes of the research centers of the CDC and introduce your true self so they can tell us if tapes around the breathing mask in the Dallas Hospital is enough to keep you from entering.

Please also tell the CDC that next time a nurse who was sent home for solitary self monitoring (she was member of the staff that handled the first Ebola victim) calls asking that she has a little high temperature, can she fly? Please tell them to say “NO.”

Thank you Ebola for all your help!

Sincerely,

Angela