How many people in Africa is currently infected with Ebola virus?

While highly contagious, an Ebola virus outbreak flares and dies out very quickly. Once a person contracts Ebola, they die so rapidly that they truly do not become a vector for the virus. It is usually passed family member to family member as one person is helping/treating the sick person. As the sick person "bleeds out" the healthy person contracts the virus. Because of this, Ebola does not become "epidemic" per se as with HIV, etc. During an outbreak of Ebola, upwards of 200+ may die; however, a person does not harbor the virus for years like HIV.

Therefore it is truly difficult to pinpoint how many actually people in Africa are infected as the span of time between infection and death is generally less than five days. This is not an infection that can be determined via census or population.

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I am not sure I see how *anyone* could... if someone is infected, they die pretty quickly; if anyone were only a carrier, I expect there would be a big enough outbreak that it would be noticed pretty quickly. Apparently, no animal carrier group has been identified, although Wikipedia says that bats and dogs are unproven possibilities.

As previous posters have pointed out, there is no way of knowing how many people are currently infected, but here is a link that can tell you how many people have been infected and killed in previous outbreaks....

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpag...

Tags

　　Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome 　　Edema 　　Eczema 　　Ecstasy 　　Echocardiography 　　EBV Infections 　　Ebola Virus 　　Eating Disorders 　　Ear Infections 　　Ear Disorders 　　E-Coli Infections 　　Dystonia

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