EBOLA REALITY CHECK: With Ebola Outbreak Hype Gripping America, Some Facts To Put It All In Perspective

(COMMENTARY) -- The nation is devouring the Ebola outbreak news, and shows an insatiable appetite for more.

It could be the fear of a hemorrhagic fever escaping from Africa, attacking the very heartland of America.

It could be the terrible pictures of victims bleeding from every part of their body, writing in pain.

The disease is fearsome, as is any newly arrived virulent pathogen, and it is lethal in 90 percent of cases. Maybe Ebola is scary because it just came to the U.S., but new viruses come very year to our shores, in the form of influenza.  Beyond the sensational headlines, the cold hard facts are less exciting, but quite a bit more important.

So far, of the seven U.S. patients to contract Ebola, after getting care in elite hospitals, 85 percent are still alive.

And the sheer volume of deaths from other viruses in the U.S. is worth noting.

*In some cases patients had the virus, but it's unclear if that was the main reason for the death.

2,512,873 people died in 2011 in America according to the CDC, in the latest stats available.

Of those, nearly 54,000 died of more deadly viruses, the flu and pneumonia -- something for which there is a readily available flu/pneumonia vaccine.

So far, one person has died from Ebola.  Were there to be a true outbreak of it, Ebola would have to kill 54,000 people before it came anywhere close to the level of death caused by the flu.  Yet, comparing headlines, the flu just doesn't seem to dominate network news, nor has the president established rapid response teams to fight it, nor is the U.S. military engaged in the fight of the flu.  53,667 people died from flu/pneumonia, but it received little coverage.

An estimated 160 million people worldwide are infected with some form of hepatitis, and deaths from that virus in the U.S. have now eclipsed those from HIV, with more than 15,000 annually, according to a UC San Francisco report.  Hepatitis is 100 times more infectious than HIV, living on toothbrushes and razor blades for weeks outside the body.  Ebola only lives for a few hours outside the body. That means it is risky for health workers dealing with explosive vomiting and diarrhea from a patient, but not as much of a risk for the general public.

Another virus is also the center of hype.  Enterovirus D68 was in the headlines before Ebola came to the U.S., and it's a disturbing disease, killing children, or even partially paralyzing them, but it's not new. It was discovered in California in 1962.  It's been regularly reported each year, infecting 825 in the 2014 outbreak.  The CDC doesn't have death totals from this virus, saying the CDC defers to the states to determine whether a death was caused by it.  So far, it appears at least 2 children, and up to 4 may have died primarily from enterovirus, along with additional complications.

Compared to all viruses affecting the nation, nothing compares to what happened in 1918. The deadliest epidemic ever was the 1918 Spanish Flu, killing anywhere from 50 million to 100 million people worldwide, and 675,000 in the U.S.

Ebola is scary, and the healthcare workers battling it are heroes. It's just not the nationwide crisis it's made out to be. Of course, if Ebola mutates, as viruses do, it could become airborne, and far more widespread.  Until then, the hype can be toned down a bit on this one.

EBOLA BACKGROUND: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/

ENTEROVIRUS: http://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/outbreaks/EV-D68-outbreaks.html

2011 DEATHS SOURCE: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_06.pdf

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