The apparent travel route taken by the first US ebola patient.

As the first domestic case of ebola hits the United States, with other possible cases now in Toronto and Washington DC, it’s time to speculate over why the CDC, WHO, and other groups are mum about the transmission methods of this virus.

Most media sites have still not adequately reported the true methods of transmission – most are willing to mention contact with, say, blood or vomit, but almost none of them are willing to point out that saliva and phlegm are bodily fluids, leading to possible transmission by coughs and sneezes.

However, there’s something far more worrying which may have led to suggestions that medical workers scrap the filtration masks and nitrile gloves for far more protective suits equipped with self contained air systems. As the media begins to question the transmission methods in cases where the victim had no direct contact with any corpses or infected patients (such as the NBC cameraman who will be flown back to the US for treatment) we can simply observe the CDC’s own website and compare ebola to a notorious exterminated virus which plagued the world and killed countless millions many years ago… smallpox.

Ebola and smallpox are transmitted in similar ways

In fact, a look at the CDC’s pages for ebola and smallpox tell the true story quite clearly – in neither case is the virus “truly airborne” – in most cases they spread in the same manner, by exposure to bodily fluids, contact with the dead, or else contact with contaminated surfaces.

Perhaps the similarity of transmission between ebola and a historically catastrophic virus that no longer exists in the wild explains why the medical community appears to be in a full panic – with the UN’s ebola panel chief now openly admitting what many said was possible back in July – namely, it is possible for ebola to mutate and become even worse.

But all we really need to do is observe the reaction by the medical community to the sole US case to see the hazard involved – although they continue to proclaim ebola difficult to transmit, they are monitoring anyone who was even in the same room with the patient for a short period of time, and have quarantined his entire family.

Worst of all are the now widely tweeted pictures of the cleanup crew outside the latest patient’s home cleaning infected vomit with a powerhose, without any protective gear on whatsoever.