Infections You Should Worry About More Than Ebola

Our nation has been struck with Ebola fever— not literally, of course, but rather a rising tide of fear that the virus will sweep across the United States. In fact, since the first case cropped up in Texas, tracking Ebola has become something of an American obsession— and not a healthy one.

“The idea that Ebola will take over the United States is an unfounded fear,” said Dr. Liise-Anne Pirofski, chief of infectious diseases at Albert Einstein College of Medicine...

 Because the incubation period is relatively brief— only 2 to 21 days —Ebola isn’t likely to spread undetected and suddenly emerge in vast numbers, added Dr. Robert Schooley, chief of infectious diseases at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. As for the Ebola case in Texas? “I think it was very much an exception,” he told Yahoo Health, adding: “It’s a threat in any place that airplanes can land, but we have the means to prevent it from spreading. I don’t see Ebola as the biggest infectious-disease worry for the people that I take care of.”