Ebola is highly infectious but not so contagious, says experts. Here's why

[AlaskaDenise]

Ebola is highly infectious but not so contagious, says experts. Here's why

.....Ebola is highly infectious in the sense that contact with just a few particles of the virus will be enough to get someone sick. However, it is not so contagious in that the sickness is not easy to transmit. In fact, a person infected with Ebola is not contagious until they start showing symptoms. Should symptoms not present themselves, an individual can be infected without being contagious......

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So...are the infected without symptoms or contagious the "mysteriously immune people" we've read about?
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[Emily]

Re: Ebola is highly infectious but not so contagious, says experts. Here's why

Generally speaking that article does a good job explaining things, but it doesn't name its science sources, and there are a lot of unknowns as far as the individual immune response to Ebola, especially in realm of what just a few virus particles would do.

Many in West Africa May Be Immune to Ebola Virus

NYT
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.SEPT. 5, 2014

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But many Africans who have never seen a victim also have antibodies.

It is possible that some get low doses of virus by eating infected monkeys or bats that are undercooked.

“If someone got just two or three or four virus particles, if it enters through the mucus membranes in the mouth, yes, it’s plausible,” said Thomas W. Geisbert, a hemorrhagic fever expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “It would take a while for the virus to get going, and it’s a race with the clock. The immune system gets a chance to fight it off.”

Antibodies, Y-shaped proteins that attach to a virus and block it from invading cells, are the immune system’s first line of defense; the second line is white blood cells primed to recognize and digest the virus.

One of France’s leading Ebola experts says he believes that many rural villagers are “vaccinated” by eating fruit gnawed on by bats and contaminated with their saliva.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Ebola is highly infectious but not so contagious, says experts. Here's why

Yes, it would have been good if the article supported its statements with sources.

Some of the concepts are discussed in this paper:

Persistent infection with Ebola virus under conditions of partial immunity

(the article doesn't want to respond to a "copy", so this is a manual copy:

.....under certain conditions of immuno deficiency, a host can harbor virus for prolonged periods, potentially acting as a reservoir.......

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