Ebola - Americans in Congo Region Now Infected, The Spread & How You Can Decrease Risk of Infection

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]So, as a biologist, all kind of things interest me when it comes to the human body, to viruses, microbes, and things of that nature. I'm already a germaphobe, though. But, um this this particular one when this particular Ebola virus that's in in in the Congo is rare.

[00:00:19]Um and it has no vaccinations, no nothing. And there's nothing anybody can actually do.

[00:00:27]Right now, several Americans um believe it's six of them have been um infected. Um one of them's just now showing symptoms. The other three are highly contagious. And here's here's the thing with the highly contagious part.

[00:00:42]Okay, a lot of um I don't know how many um actual Congolese people are infected right now. I'm assuming in the hundreds because this is one of the rarer forms of Ebola. Um but Ebola spreads through bodily fluids.

[00:01:03]Okay? And at different stages, you can catch it even at different stages you can catch it. Um um like say, for instance, when I say it like that, I mean, okay, so spit, right?

[00:01:15]You can catch it from spit. However, in its early stages, there's a low transmission rate with spit. But, at the later stages, yeah, you can catch it from spit, for real. Like easy transmission, okay? So, it depends on what stage the virus is at. So, if you're early on in the stage, spit may not get to you, but in the later stage, yeah, you just go you're going to catch it from spit. Right? And [snorts] that's how a lot of people actually do get it.

[00:01:44]Um but blood, anytime that virus can get into your system, you are going to catch Ebola. Like blood, of course, intimacy, um uh vomit all all that tear, sweat So, basically This this thing is like it can it can even transmit if you rub up against somebody. Let's say you have like a open wound or a scratch on your on your skin, right? Ebola is actually alive in the later stages on people's skin.

[00:02:24]And so, when you're sweating, little microscopic sweat drops or whatever, yeah, it transmits. So, touching someone or touching touching an object that someone in this late stages are infected they're infected and let's say they touch a doorknob. You don't know they touched that doorknob. They touched it.

[00:02:42]Guess what? If you touch it and it enters your body in any crack, in your eyes, whatever you have it.

[00:02:53]So, that's why this this is very dangerous.

[00:02:57]Um This [snorts] is This is This is one of these things that even though it's contained right now, you don't want it to spread all over the place. But, it needs to stop spreading where it is.

[00:03:10]Now, my thoughts on it is if let's say if if I was over in the Congo right now.

[00:03:16]Um one of the main things I would do is don't touch anything that I don't have to touch.

[00:03:21]Just don't touch anything that I don't have to touch.

[00:03:24]Um possibly wear gloves, right? But, just don't don't just go around just la la la la la la, you know? Um including like let's say for instance if um I was to participate if I was going somewhere to participate in something traditional or like how they traditionally may eat, you know, people sharing in the same bowl or whatever.

[00:03:42]Not, I wouldn't be doing that either.

[00:03:44]You know what I'm saying? Because I don't know even though the transmission rate is low in the early stages in the early stages from spit, you [snorts] you can still get it from spit. So, just eating out of the same bowl, and then licking your fingers, and then going back in there, absolutely not.

[00:04:05]>> [snorts] >> I would actually try and have as little contact even with family members, even though you're in the same household or whatever, I would have as little contact as possible.

[00:04:15]Because people go out to work like your husband goes out to work, the wife may go out to work, the children go to school, and everybody comes back. I would really try and have as little contact as possible with um everyone in the household. Everybody in the household would have to eat from different whatever. I would have to go out and everybody's eating from different um utensils. Everybody, this is your utensil. This is your utensils.

[00:04:43]I would have different utensils for everybody. Eat from your own section.

[00:04:50]And and then try not to bump into people and graze up against people because you just honestly do not know. Because number one, you don't know how hot it is. People sweat all the time. People sweat everywhere. People go for jobs, people walking, people are sweating constantly. Try not to bump up against people. Like really make it a make a conscious effort to like not just rub up against folk.

[00:05:15]That would be my thing.

[00:05:17]I would I >> [laughter] >> I'll make a conscious effort. Look, if I had to pile on a bus, okay? I'm not getting on that bus today. I'm going to find another way. I'm going to have to walk, okay? And because oh, I'm calling in or I'm just have to I'm just have to do something because it's not going to it's not going to work. It's just not going to work. Um should they shut down the borders? I would. If I I wouldn't listen to there's no there's no world health health organization that would tell me not to shut borders down. I would shut the I would I would try and figure out um the perimeter and that part would be shut down.

[00:05:57]That if they needed any groceries or anything >> [snorts] >> coming in that we would just we would just send them in there, but I'm not going to I'm not going to sit there and open up them borders and just have people just la la rolling out because one of the last documentaries I looked at on Ebola was how um people got so afraid after their family was dying and then there was a superstition saying that people were going to come after you or people were injecting people with Ebola and stuff like that that people would run off into other areas across the border and that's how one of the worst um Ebola outbreaks happened. They were running across the border and then more people got infected and then there were more superstition and there was more um gossip about the disease and there was more and more and it just kept spreading and freaking spreading and freaking spreading. Um so yeah, I would I would cut that I would cut that out because conspiracy theorists and everybody are out there and people believe conspiracy theorists.

[00:06:53]They really do.

[00:06:55]Um that's nothing to to to spread a conspiracy theory about.

[00:07:02]Like mm-mm. As a biologist, no, I would do everything. I wouldn't leave it up to some freaking politician to tell me nothing. Like you don't know what the flip you talking about. Like shut it down.

[00:07:16]They talking about well it's not you know, we're not going to consider it a pandemic or epidemic or I'm going to consider it.

[00:07:23]Because no one wants to go through that.

[00:07:25]People's children got to go to school.

[00:07:27]People got to people got to go to work and everything. Nobody wants to go through that. You know what I'm saying?

[00:07:31]Like cut the thing off.

[00:07:34]Cut the thing off.

[00:07:36]It's almost like these people in these organizations are experimenting or need a certain amount of people to get it so that they can freaking experiment with whatever's left.

[00:07:50]Okay?

[00:07:52]That's That's what it just It just It just always seems like cuz how Let's Let's let it get out a little bit more.

[00:07:58]Let's say they get out a little bit more for what?

[00:08:01]For what?

[00:08:03]And for anybody living in that region, I know there are traditional ways of doing things, but >> [snorts] >> like at some point at some point you have to be sick of the outbreaks more than you love the tradition.

[00:08:21]Because some of the traditions in in that area um increase the spread more rapidly than it needs to be.