Please help to sub due my ebola fears

Hi! I was the exact same a few days ago about it Ebola really is every anxiety sufferer and hypachondriacs worst nightmare! However I had a long oul chat with my Mam and dad and sister about it and they said worrying about Ebola is like worrying about gettin the flu or a cold, it's highly unlikely that it is going to come to tiny little ireland or England and that If it does that more higher precautions are going to be put down and that it will not spread, the only reason it's killing so many in Africa is because we have to remember they are seriously severe 3rd world countries and I think we tend to forget that, if a person living in a 3rd world contry contracted a cold or virus it would kill them, where If we got a cold or virus we go to our doctor and get antibiotics and wer back to normal within a few days, we sometimes don't understand how lucky we are to be safe and well, I hope you get a piece of mind from this because I definatly have😊

You are very unlikely to get it. It's been around for a long time and it's only recently we are hearing about it. 

Anybody coming to our country from countries where this is,will now have to have health checks before they get on a flight.

Do you really think the prime minister or queen would risk themselves getting this? So they may not care much about us but you can guarantee they are doing everything in there power so this doesn't reach our country because they themselves don't want to be put at risk.

Please don't worry. The amount of illnesses we already have here and you haven't manage to catch any of them...which means that although we worry,the liklihood of us catching anything like this is very slim xxx

Thanks! It's slowly sinking in that it isn't a huge risk. However it does keep me from going places

its a big problem in West Africa The aid workers are occasionally being infected and repatriated so we hear about it on the news.  The army is sending a medical team to help out there so there may be more cases of infected helpers returning.

Richard

It is scary...I had a wobble about it myself when I first started with this episode of anxiety. I think when our minds are vulnerable we are so easily triggered.

All I can think a7 is " why would it be you"?? Please don't fear it.

Think this way " ok so there's a slight possibility that it may come here,a even slighter possibility that I will catch it. I am anticipating what could happen when chances are they won't happen so I'm going to chill out and get on with my life and only worry if this becomes a threat to me"!!!

Ebola isn't actually that infectious, particularly with Western standards of hygiene etc. Unlike colds or the flu you can't catch from airborne droplets, so you can't catch it just by being in the same room as someone who coughs or sneezes. You can only catch it by contact with their body fluids, for instance if someone vomits over you. So people who are nursing a patient or a family member will be touching them and cleaning them up or dealing with their contaminated clothing and bedding so they will be at risk if they don't take precautions, but members of the public won't be at risk.

Someone who has been infected is not contagious until they start showing symptoms, beginning with a high temperature. So you can't catch it from anyone you sit next to on a plane because if they are flying from one of the African countries affected they will have have been checked before being allowed on a plane. So they are not yet infectious even if they develop Ebola later.

Ebola victims are most infectious after they are dead, and some of the burial customs in these African countries are almost guaranteed to pass the disease on, but these are now changing and anyway we don't have the same customs in the UK.

Also, Ebola can be caught by eating certain infected wild animals such as fruit bats ( a delicacy in some countries) or apes and monkeys, particularly if they are not cooked properly, but you are unlikely to be eating those in the UK!

General health hygiene is much better in the UK and we have much better health infrastructure as well as plans already in place for isolation etc. to deal with serious infectious illnesses, so even if more people come to the UK with Ebola, it is very unlikely to spread to the general public. Also our health facilities in the UK are much better, so although they can't yet cure Ebola, they can support the body (e.g. by replacing fluids) to make it more likely to stay alive long enough for the immune system to conquer the virus - our immune systems are wonderful things!  

Normal health hygiene (washing your hands etc) can reduce your risk even further, and more usefully it will reduce your risk of catching more common diseases such as colds and flu, but don't become obsessive about that.