The TCU community does not have to worry about catching the Ebola virus.

That’s what Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief of Texas Children’s Hospital, emphasized to TCU students, faculty and staff at a presentation about Ebola on Tuesday night.

“Your chances of encountering or becoming infected with Ebola in the United States [are] close to zero,” Kline said.

According to Texas Children’s Hospital, Kline has been treating children with HIV/AIDS since the epidemic first surfaced amongst the youngest of patients in the late 1980s.

The World Health Organization said the Ebola virus appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks: one in Nzara, Sudan and another in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kline discussed the parallels of both HIV/AIDS and Ebola.

“There is intense stigma associated with HIV, as there is with Ebola,” Kline said.

Both diseases initiated in subhuman primates, which played a big role in cross-species transmission.

“Fruit bats are the natural host of Ebola,” Kline said. “The bats carry and shed the virus.”

Kline said there have been more than 10,000 cases of Ebola and more than 5,000 resulting deaths in the West African Ebola epidemic to date. The epidemic is “doubling between 15 to 30 days,” Kline said.

“Ebola control is challenging,” Kline said. “New cases are occurring at a rate of 1000 per week. The case fatality rate is about 70 percent.”

Despite inflated rates of transmission in Africa, Kline said Texas and the United states are not at risk for a similar epidemic.

There have been 4 cases of Ebola in the United States and 1 death.

“Air travel has made the world smaller than ever before,” Kline said.

While cases in the United States are less prevalent than those in Africa, Kline said, “we need to prepare that Ebola will be our new normal, our new reality.”

“Urban spread provides an almost inexhaustible supply of susceptible hosts,” said Kline.

Ebola is not an airborne virus and cannot be transmitted through food or water. It can only be contracted by coming in contact with an infected person’s blood, vomit, stool, saliva, breast milk or semen.

At death is when a person is the most contagious.

“Ebola becomes the most contagious when it is in the latest stages,” Kline said.

There has not been an FDA-approved vaccine or medicine available for Ebola.

“The Ebola virus vaccine development should be on the horizon,” said Kline.

At this point, Kline said students should not take any precautionary measures, but they should stay informed on the transmission of Ebola.