kazak.com
So the CDC recently confirmed that there is indeed Ebola in the good 'ol US of A—in fact, the man infected in Dallas, Texas, Thomas E. Duncan, just died today and is poised to be cremated.
While the CDC remains doggedly optimistic in the face of what could become a stateside decimation of biblical proportions, the World Health Organization (WHO) is continuing to issue chilling warnings of Ebola's contagiosity.
While Ebola victims can only infect others when they're showing "active symptoms" (like chronic headache, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, or unexplained bruising or bleeding), WHO is now warning the world that making whoopie with a previously infected man could pose a risk of infection up to three months after a man is deemed "recovered."
While the "most infectious" bodily fluids are blood, feces and vomit, WHO says that the virus has also been detected in breast milk, urine and semen.
"In a convalescent male, the virus can persist in semen for at least 70 days; one study suggests persistence for more than 90 days."
Saliva and tears may also carry some risk in passing along the infection, although the studies were "extremely limited in sample size and the science is inconclusive." Saliva was riddled with the virus when patients were in the most severe stage of illness; happily for those who like their sex athletic and slippery, the live virus has never been isolated from sweat.
WHO also explains that Ebola is not an airborne virus, unlike the Avian flu or SARS . . . but the possibility of a big wet Ebola sneeze passing along the virus is conceivable, if unlikely.
"Theoretically, wet and bigger droplets from a heavily infected individual, who has respiratory symptoms caused by other conditions or who vomits violently, could transmit the virus—over a short distance—to another nearby person. This could happen when virus-laden heavy droplets are directly propelled, by coughing or sneezing (which does not mean airborne transmission) onto the mucus membranes or skin with cuts or abrasions of another person."
If you're a bona fide worrier—like me—and you just met the man of your dreams, you need to practice some good old fashioned patience for the next seven weeks. (Or wear a condom every time you want the coitus or to taste him down under.) Got it?
