Ebola, How Bad?

No sources, but I am unaware of any dispute in the following quick summary:

Really Bad

  • Ebola causes internal and even external bleeding.
    • (The book The Hot Zone describes the virus “liquefying organs,” but this description is widely regarded as overly-sensational to the point of being inaccurate).
  • Very high fatality rate and recovered patients experience ongoing symptoms.
  • Ebola is known to lay dormant within individual human organs for many years.
  • The latest outbreaks are believed to have originated from recovered patients from previous outbreaks in whom the virus lay dormant for years.
  • Scientists believe it is theoretically possible for an Ebola virus to become airborne.

“Not So Bad”

  • As yet, Ebola has been contagious only by bodily fluid contact so outbreaks are almost always contained to just a few hundred people.
  • Infected persons are contagious only when symptomatic and the symptoms are too extreme to ignore. Little or no asymptomatic spread.