Researcher Says People Should Be Concerned, Not Panicked, About Ebola

(CBS) -- A researcher who's been studying Ebola for six years says people should be concerned about the virus but not panicked.

Dr. Robert Stahelin is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry Indiana University School of Medicine and a member of Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health. He says people may be overreacting a little because they don't understand it's not an airborne virus. You have to come in contact with bodily fluids and it's not a super easy virus to catch.

"The virus isn't very stable outside the body so sunlight will inactivate the virus, heat will inactivate the virus so really only within the human host or the animal species in Africa where it is being harbored is it very stable," Dr. Stahelin said.

He says scientists should be able to come up with a cure or at least drugs to prolong life.

"We know how to inhibit the virus in principle and with some drug compounds we've worked with already, but unfortunately some of these are pretty toxic," he said.

Stahelin's research is aimed at finding out how the virus leaves the host cells and spreads the infection to other cells in the body.