While campaigning for Republicans in New Hampshire on Oct. 16, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Concord News Radio that the White House has not taken the Ebola threat seriously enough and put people at risk by downplaying the transmissibility of the virus. Is the Ebola virus “incredibly contagious,” “very transmissible” and “easy to catch”?

The website Politifact.com decided to check it out and EPIBIO department head and infectious disease physician Dr. Christopher Whalen was one of the experts they called to get some answers to this pressing question.

Excerpt from article:

In Africa, the disease has claimed so many victims because of poor health systems that lack supplies and safeguards and because of burial practices where people directly handle bodies without necessary protections. This is what caused such a large outbreak there.

Burials are especially problematic because the near dead or recently dead have very high levels of the virus and are “very infectious as a result,” said Christopher Whalen, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Georgia College of Public Health.

Read the entire article on Tampa Bay Time’s PolitiFact.com.

Posted October 27, 2014.