The “next big thing” is here and you’ll never guess what it is. A new boy band? A new Taylor Swift album? No. Well, kind of, but not the point. It’s Ebola. The Center for Disease Control defines Ebola as “a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus strains.” Scary, right? Well, not as much as you might think. Despite the media frenzy about Ebola patients currently receiving treatment in the United States, your chances (as a college student not visiting one of the three Ebola stricken countries) of getting the Ebola virus are slim to none. Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, instruments that have touched infected fluids, as well as inflected bats or monkeys.
Ebola can’t be spread through air or water, so unless you’re planning on hanging out with someone infected with Ebola, you’re fine. If your worry is a doomsday scenario where the virus hits the New York metropolitan area and spreads like wildfire (like in the movie, Contagion), fear no more! Not only are patients placed in an intense quarantine, the hospital personal treating them are completely decked out in hazmat suits!
As for the nurse in Dallas that caught the virus, she only became infected because she didn’t follow procedure correctly. If it makes you feel any better, none of the people she is close to are showing any symptoms.
My advice? Relax. Maybe save that trip to Liberia for another time. And of course, just have good hygiene. But that always applies, no matter what diseases are going around! Stay healthy!