Unexpected Virus Spread Via Mobile Phone: Ebola.

Picture it: you’re walking down the street, minding your own business, talking to someone on your cell phone, or maybe you just set it down on a table in a café, just for a second. Then, suddenly and without warning, someone comes up from behind and snatches that phone and runs off.

Scary, right? We’re all so attached to out cells these days. Would you give chase? Would someone close by stop him? Maybe, maybe not. Either way imagine the scumbag got away with it. Your baby! Your lifeline! All of your contacts, pictures, music, ringtone settings… GONE!

This happened to my wife – TWICE – and, trust me, she did not have any kind sentiments to express toward the guys who stole her phones. Sure cell phone theft is a pretty small-time crime, but admit it, you’d wish a pox on them. Don’t deny it! You would. Or maybe you have wished it on them, if you’ve been in that situation.

Well, the universe seems to be paying out on all the angry sentiments of phone theft victims everywhere. And one guy is collecting in full.

Two weeks ago, in Uganda, a man was warded in the Kagadi Hospital when someone, an as yet unidentified 40-year-old male, stole the patient’s $23 cell phone.

I know! Just can’t get a classier criminal than that, right?

Anyway, here’s where things get interesting. The victim, like several others in the area, was at the time being quarantined for contracting the very deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus, currently on the loose in Uganda.

For those who aren’t too familiar, Ebola is no joke. It causes the Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes as:

a severe, often-fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees) that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976.

They say that within 2 to 21 days someone who has contracted the Ebola HF can have symptoms like fever,  diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, red eyes and internal and external bleeding and many more. It’s the bleeding part I think is the scariest, since you can bleed from every orifice of your body!!!

Meet Ebola, up close & personal.

*Shudders*

Anyway, the original owner of the device managed to report it missing before succumbing to the disease himself and authorities set out to track the thief down. Not so much because he stole the phone, but because, as I’ve said, virus is highly contagious. So much so that since this outbreak, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has issued a warning that citizens avoid physical contact as much as possible.

You know all those stories you’ve heard about germs hiding in cell phones? Well, they’re true! You’d be wise to remember that next time you think about lending someone your phone or borrowing someone’s phone. Our unfortunate thief in this story will most certainly never forget it… if he lives that is.

Soon after, while police were still tracking all the personal the calls he was making on his stolen prize, the thief was checking himself into the same hospital with Ebola symptoms. He made a full confession and doctors are now trying to save him from the deadly disease.

I know, the punishment seems a bit steep compared to the crime, but I’m sure just before you’re left feeling a little sorry for the guy, you’ll feel the teeniest pinch of satisfaction that he got some good old karmic justice… then, maybe, a small amount of guilt, but satisfied, all the same.

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