Does Your Neighbor Have Ebola? How to Tell from Across the Street!

Injecting Useful Info & Tips Into the EbolaCircus

Telling if your neighbor has Ebola is easier than you’d think!  In this post we’ll show you what to look for (from a distance preferably) and how to confirm it by getting closer – if the suspense is killing you!  (Don’t let the suspense kill you!)

Symptoms of Ebola infection can be confusing at first.  Telling if your neighbor is infected, or if they just have the flu, begins with a snappy review of symptoms common to both.

First… Are They in Bed and Barfing?

If so, they might have Ebola.

After glancing at the symptoms below, recall your last flu-like illness, and compare those symptoms with the ones listed.  With exception of the “unexplained bleeding or bruising” – which is a late finding in Ebola – they’re similar to those caused by many common infectious illnesses.

Second… Do They Have a Fever?

Since you’re across the street, just look to see if they’re all sweaty.

Fever is always thought to be present with Ebola… always!  But alone, an elevated body temperature is hardly specific for the disease.  That’s because fever is the rule with most viral infections, not the exception.  So using that sign to try to sort out Ebola patients from those having the flu is pointless.  It only tells you the person is coming down with an illness.  Not which one.   Even then it’s only helpful if the person has been around a symptomatic Ebola patient, and has not been exposed to anyone with another viral illnesses.  But if you add a fever of 101.5 or greater to other specific signs, a picture pointing to Ebola will start emerging.

Third… Are They Coughing?

If so, shucks, they probably don’t have Ebola.

Ebola rarely produces a cough, whereas influenza frequently does.  But most telling of those stricken with Ebola, is the unusual skin rash, and a specific type of redness in the whites of their eyes that appear.  Most of the time the skin and eye findings show up before the person starts vomiting blood.  If they are bleeding from every orifice, then Ebola, or another virus from its family, is more or less certain.

Fourth… No Cough?

… Well Then Cowboy, You’ll Have to Sneak Close Enough to See the Whites of Their Eyes!

Ebola does something strange to the eyes.  The whites of their eyes become a bizarre type of red.  Normally this is called conjunctivitis, and is found with many contagious illness.  But in the case of Ebola the redness is distinctly different.  It’s deeper and reflects processes occurring in all vessels of the body.  Because this is an important finding, we’ll delve into it a little more carefully.  Let’s start with what the whites of normal eyes should look like.

Less harmful viruses, like those causing the flu or a cold, will cause blood vessels in the transparent covering of the eye to become inflamed.  When they do, the liner pattern of redness will extend out radially like the rays of a cartoon sun.  If you were to take a Q-Tip and push down on these reddened vessels, they’d blanch.  If you moved the transparent conjunctiva covering the white sclera, the vessels within it would also move.  This is because the transparent covering, and the sclera underneath it, are not attached to one another.

All of these findings are common to many non-fatal viral illnesses.  Their typical appearance is shown in the images below.

The redness Ebola produces is different.  The blood vessel damage is seen deep within the whitened area.  Vessels there will not move or blanch when you push on them.  This is bad news, because it suggests that blood vessels elsewhere in the body aren’t just irritated, but that they too are sustaining massive injury.  And if that’s happening in the eye, then the person is probably close to bleeding into all of their organs.  Even without manipulating the eye with a Q-Tip, you’ll notice the inflamed vessels aren’t traveling in the usual radial direction.  Instead, they’re running circumferentially around the iris.

Last… Do They Have Blood Blisters?

You didn’t want to get close enough to see the whites of their eyes, you say?  Can’t blame you!  In that case wait a bit.  In the last stages you’ll be able to see the Ebola rash from across the street.

The rash Ebola produces is unique.  Where most rashes result from skin inflammation, the hemorrhagic rash of Ebola results from bleeding into the skin.  In addition, these non-blanching purplish spots cover most of the person’s body, not just a specific area.

As Ebola progresses, the symptoms become more telling and appear in a predictable sequence.  About half of those infected will go on to bleed internally.  We’ll go over the time line from infection to death in the next post if you’ve found this one useful.  Please leave us a like or plus, so we know if you’d like to continue the discussion with more!

-ThePrepperPages.com

The Above is Adapted From:

http://theprepperpages.com/have-ebola