If you’ve been paying attention to the news—and even if you haven’t—you know that an outbreak of the Ebola virus has been ravaging West Africa since August and, in recent weeks, has made its way to Spain and the United States. After approximately 10,000 cases and nearly 4,000 deaths in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plus two in Spain, one in Germany and one in the United States, there’s a lot of concern about what comes next. Of course, it all sounds scary, but this isn’t quite the dire situation of disaster movies. First discovered near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, the virus causing the current outbreak is one of five known strains. It is unclear where the virus originated or how exactly it spreads, but we believe the virus was probably transferred to humans by bats. The virus can only be spread by direct contact from person to person once symptoms have started. The virus is not thought to be spread by airborne mechanisms, but only by direct contact with bodily fluids. Outbreaks of Ebola have affected areas of West Africa sporadically