There is nothing quite like a global pandemic to spread fear, anxiety, and financial chaos around the world. As Covid-19 continues to infect and disrupt daily life on a global scale, as well as claim thousands of lives a day, let’s take a look at the key differences between this deadly viral infection and the Ebola pandemic.

First, a brief history of Ebola and Covid-19:

Formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Ebola was first transmitted to people from wild animals such as fruit bats and porcupines. Spreading through blood, secretions, organs, and other bodily fluids of infected people, the first cases were recorded in Central Africa in 1976. During 2014, Ebola started to spread across West Africa and then into Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. With a 90 percent lethality rate, Ebola is the most deadly virus known to man, yet it is very hard to transmit. 

There are still many questions still left unanswered regarding the current global pandemic. Covid-19 is thought to have started in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China in 2019 and rapidly spread across the country and eventually across the world. Highly infectious, Covid-19 is a severe acute respiratory syndrome that can be deadly. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic. Covid-19 has so far claimed the lives of approximately 2.36 million people.

In the past decade, the world has battled a number of deadly viral infections, from Ebola and Swine Flu to Covid-19. The question is, how is the current global pandemic different from Ebola, and why is our global response so severe to this pandemic.

Let’s take a look at 3 major differences between Covid-19 and Ebola. 

The main symptoms of Ebola are body aches and muscle pain, fever, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and unexplained bleeding and bruising.

Covid-19 has symptoms that can easily be mistaken for the common cold or flu, such as body aches, fatigue, a high temperature, and continuous cough. There are some symptoms that can help you to diagnose Covid-19 such as a loss or change of sense of smell or taste, but some people can have Covid-19 and show no symptoms at all. This makes it extremely difficult to contain the virus and identify those who are currently infected. 

Ebola is extremely deadly, with a fatality rate of 90 percent.

Covid-19 on the other hand is very low, at around 2-3 percent. Your chances of surviving the current pandemic are high and are related to your age and health. So if you’re young with no underlying health conditions, you’ll have a good chance of fighting the infection with no medical intervention. 

While fatality is extremely low for Covid-19 compared to Ebola, it is highly infectious which is why it has rapidly spread from country to country and caused so many deaths. There has only been one confirmed case of Ebola in the USA, but 27 million Americans have been infected with Covid-19.

In fact, the Ebola outbreak was linked to the use of contaminated needles and syringes, which were used in hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nurses would recycle syringes and use five for every 300 to 600 patients per day, which is why Ebola quickly got out of hand.

Now consider the extreme precautious hospitals and medical professionals are taking to stop the spread of Covid-19. Despite wearing several layers of PPE, this viral infection is still continuing to spread, which clearly demonstrates how easily it can get out of control, which is why our response is so extreme compared to the Ebola outbreak. If the fatality rate is 2 percent and Covid-19 spreads throughout the US, it could lead to 1 million unnecessary deaths.

About Bio-One Inc.

Bio-One Inc. is the first crime and trauma scene cleaning franchise, operating in 40 States with over 100 locations. Bio-One is committed to providing excellent service in recovery and suicide cleanup, homicide cleanup, hoarding situations, junk removal, deceased animal recovery, feces removal, pest and rodent droppings and much more. Each office is independently owned and operated by a member of the local community. For more information about becoming a Bio-One franchisee, visit us at BioOneInc.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.