Odds of getting Ebola from air travel are extremely low

The odds of having an Ebola-infected airliner seatmate in the U.S. remain tiny, even after news that a nurse coming down with the disease flew from Ohio to Dallas last week.

Here's why:

People with Ebola aren't contagious until they start experiencing symptoms, such as fever, body aches, or stomach pain, research shows.

So far, two infected travelers are known to have flown on U.S. airlines. The Liberian man who died in a Dallas hospital Oct. 8 wasn't ill when he flew to the U.S., according to the CDC. So passengers aren't at risk.

And the nurse who flew Frontier Airlines from Ohio to Dallas on Monday night wasn't having symptoms, either, the CDC said. But by Tuesday morning, she had a fever. So everyone on her flight will be interviewed for "an extra margin of safety."

Even if a traveler is already sick, Ebola germs don't spread through the air the way flu does. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluid, such as getting an infected person's blood or vomit into your eyes or through a cut in the skin, experts say.

What if a sick person's wet sneeze hits your hand and then you rub your eyes? Though not impossible, that's highly unlikely, the CDC said. No such case has been documented. - AP