What We've Learned About the Virus
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â—† The average Ebola survival rate is about 50 percent. There is no cure for the disease. And more than 4,000 people in West Africa have died from it in this outbreak.
â—† The chances for a widespread Ebola outbreak in the United States are extremely small, even now that a fourth case has been confirmed. The circumstances that have led to the rapid spread of the virus in West Africa do not exist in the U.S. In Liberia, Sierra Leon,e and Guinea, poor public-health infrastructure, combined with a poor public awareness about how the disease is contracted, have exacerbated the problem. In the U.S., the federal government is tracking and monitoring anyone who may have been in contact with an Ebola patient.
â—† Plus, American doctors have extensive training in dealing with quarantined and highly infectious patients. Protocols to deal with infectious diseases are standardized across U.S. hospitals.
â—† While there is no cure for Ebola, there's mixed evidence that the disease can be treated with the blood of Ebola survivors, which contains the antibodies necessary to defeat the disease. But the science is still unclear about whether transfusions would work. "Who does it work on, how does it work exactly, when doesn't it work, what's the right amount to give, all those things—that information really isn't clear," a World Health Organization spokesperson told National Journal's Kaveh Waddell.