How to avoid catching Ebola virus: Don't eat poo, says TV expert

Virus is contracted through bodily fluids, but not often that way

(NY1)

US news stations have really outdone themselves with their Ebola coverage, first CNN declared the virus "the Isis of biological agents", then Fox suggested the country's borders be shut down.

Now New York news station NY1 has some important advice on how not to catch Ebola when you're out and about on the street.

"If you come across some strange mucus or faeces or something out there, on the subway, on the street or anywhere else," an 'expert' is seen telling the anchor in a video clip from a report, "You know, don't eat it!"

There you have it.

A video posted by voluptuousvick (@voluptuousvick) on Oct 10, 2014 at 7:37pm PDT

Ebola has also been found in body fluids like saliva, vomit, sweat, tears, urine, and semen, so probably best to avoid eating those too.

The outbreak was being debated in New York because an NYC doctor who had recently returned to his home in Harlem after working for Doctors Without Borders in Guinea helping treat patients with Ebola was announced to have tested positive for the disease and been put in isolation on Thursday night.

The Mayor of New York, Bill De Blasio, confirmed the diagnosis in a press conference but tried to reassure the 8 million residents of the city that the risk of it spreading any further remained minimal.

Questions were nonetheless being asked this morning after it emerged that the patient had traveled in taxis and on the underground system since his return to the US on 17th October and had gone bowling in Brooklyn.