MONDAY, July 28, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The deadly Ebola virus that continues to rage throughout West Africa poses little risk to Americans, U.S. health officials stressed Monday.
Ebola only spreads through physical touch, and it can't be spread by people who aren't showing symptoms of infection, Stephan Monroe, Ph.D., deputy director of the National Center for Emerging & Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explained in a Monday afternoon news conference.
Those factors -- and the fact that most flights between West Africa and the United States require one or more stops in other countries -- make it unlikely that a sick person could make it all the way to America and spread the Ebola virus, CDC officials said.
Monroe believes that "the likelihood of this outbreak spreading outside of West Africa is very low," although countries in the region will probably continue to see cases. The current outbreak is the deadliest ever for Ebola, causing more than 670 deaths and 1,200 infections in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization. However, the death rate from Ebola during the current outbreak is about 60 percent compared to 90 percent from prior outbreaks -- indicating that early treatment efforts have been effective, Monroe said.
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