Doctor Warns Test for Ebola Has One Fatal Flaw

  

Dr. Nancy Khardouri has been studying and treating infectious diseases for the past 30 years. She says the test is one of the main concerns with the Ebola virus.

Even if a person is infected with Ebola, test results will be negative until enough of the virus builds up in the person's body.

"The test becomes positive when you have symptoms. So it doesn't help you before the symptoms, like many other tests do," Khardouri, director of infectious disease at Eastern Virginia Medical School, explained.

That means a person infected with Ebola can appear to be in good health and enter the country undetected. What happens after that is up to each individual, but precautions can be taken at the point of entry.

"People who are coming from Africa, I'm hoping that this education will happen at the entry level, like at the airports, customs checks and all. 'Look, you're coming from XYZ country and therefore if you have fever, you don't feel well, please just don't take your time to go see a health care provider, go quickly,'" Dr. Khardouri said.

In an effort to prevent Ebola from spreading in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a number of guidelines for hospitals across the country. Topping the list: zeroing in on patients who have been to West Africa."

Experts say these people should be detained and quarantined even with symptoms as mild as a low-grade fever.

Although Ebola is only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, it just takes a drop splashing into the eyes, nose or even on a tiny cut for a person to become infected.

"If people have a small tear or abrasion that they haven't even noticed, which happens all the time, and they come in contact with somebody's blood, or somebody's stool, or urine, or vomit that has the virus in it, in that case the virus will go in[to] the skin," Dr. Khardouri explained.

Dr. Khardouri says the best hope for containing the spread of Ebola is the vaccine currently being developed, which could be given on a mass scale as early as six months from now.

"Because of the technology now, that is quite possible, considering and hoping there will be no hurdles in the process that we don't know of yet," she said.

Until Ebola is contained in Africa, Dr. Khardouri says it will continue to spread around the world.