The risk that an infected traveler Ebola is remote

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The risk that an infected traveler Ebola in Africa is very remote, unless you have been caring for patients, such as religious or medical staff, told Efe infectious disease specialist doctor Rogelio López Vélez.

The head of Imported Infectious Diseases Unit of Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, one of the two reference centers in Spain Hospital, said today in an interview with EFE that Ebola is not airborne, but bodily fluids.

It is for this reason that the transmission of the virus is needed to «close contact, such as keeping people who are carers, who have vomiting, bleeding, diarrhea or cough,» he said.

About the Ebola outbreak affecting several countries in Africa and that has killed more than 700 people since last March, the Spanish specialist recalls that among the dead are 60 members of medical staff who have caught that little protection measures in hospitals.

Of the total of 729 deaths from this hemorrhagic virus, 339 were from Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone 233 and 156 of Liberia, as well as another person in Nigeria, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

«It is extremely difficult for a tourist or traveler becoming infected; if a traveler returns from Africa with fever most likely have something else, dengue or malaria, almost certainly, «said the Spanish physician, who said that« another thing that has been taking care of or contact with someone sick «.

It is very low risk of transmission in the case of a person who «had traveled beside a patient who was incubating Ebola» insisted the manager of this center of Spanish reference in the treatment of these infectious diseases.

«Yes it is possible, but fortunately not transmitted through the respiratory tract and in the early stages of disease transmission is very low,» he said.  It’s different for foreigners who live outside Africa and traveling to their country of origin, coinciding with holidays, to care for family members who may be ill.

«The Ebola incubation period is two to 21 days and if you have sex with Ebola affected, the period is extended to seven weeks,» he said. «Until now it was a lethal disease because this bud has a mortality of 65%, but self-limiting,» said the doctor.

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