• Question: how do you get ebola and how it effectes you. info about that pls.

    Asked by HICKOLAD to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 19 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      Hi HICKOLAD. Ebola is transmitted in bodily fluids like urine, vomit and blood. So you need to be around an effected person who is particularly ill. Also, you can catch it off infected animals like bats and monkeys.

      The symptoms are awful and include pain, headaches, external and internal bleeding and vomiting. It can kill you because it remains in the body undetected for a long time. When the body does realise it has been infected, it launches a completely over-the-top response (see, cytokine storm) which attacks your own body.

    • Photo: Anna Scaife

      Anna Scaife answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      Ebola is a virus and you can catch it in a number of different ways. From person to person it’s usually spread by fluid transfer (blood, body water etc). You need to touch the infected fluid or a surface that has recently been in contact with the fluid. It’s not airborne yet, so you can’t catch it just by breathing. You can also get ebola by eating meat from infected animals.

      The symptoms are kind of like flu at first – fever, vomiting, diarrhoea. The other symptom is how it affects your blood clotting. If you have ebola your blood doesn’t clot properly and you can bleed very easily – on the inside or the outside. Big bruises under the skin that spread quickly and widely are a symptom of ebola. It’s usually this bleeding and dehydration from fluid loss that make ebola fatal.

      It’s a really nasty illness.

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