Click on the button above to listen to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) podcast on Ebola.
What happens to the people who survive an Ebola infection? What happens to the family members of people who died from an Ebola infection? The answers may be surprising.
After being exposed to Ebola, it takes only 21 days to determine if a person will get Ebola because 21 days is the incubation period for Ebola. If a person does not develop symptoms within 21 days of being exposed to Ebola, they will not become sick with Ebola. If a person does become sick and they survive the disease, they are no longer contagious and cannot spread the disease; they are "Ebola free" and are even immune to at least some strain of the disease. Despite these facts, the people in both of the situations described above are ostracized, shunned, and stigmatized. Their communities and even their own families do not want them around. It is clear that people do not understand the science of Ebola; they do not understand the chain of transmission for Ebola. People often fear what they do not understand and other people then suffer from the ignorance. Watch the videos below for more information and examples of the stigmatization associated with Ebola.