Pregnant Ebola patient may have been contagious for days without symptoms

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Thu, 2015-06-18 14:08 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Gene Emery June 18, 2015

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pregnant women infected with Ebola may be contagious for days before they show symptoms, a group of doctors is warning in the June 18 New England Journal of Medicine.

The warning is based on a single case and the woman did not actually spread the deadly infection to anyone. But laboratory tests revealed high levels of the virus when no symptoms were present.

Usually people aren't considered to be contagious until they start to feel ill.

The reason pregnant women may be an exception may have to do with the way pregnancy affects the woman's body, the doctors say. Her immune system becomes more tolerate of the fetus, whose tissues would normally be considered foreign.

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http://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-ebola-patient-may-contagious-days-without-symptoms-124114264.html;_ylt=AwrC0wxAAYNVTlEAmp7QtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBybGY3bmpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--