The dogma that fever is a reliable indicator of the onset of Ebola symptoms, and therefore, the onset of infectiousness, in all infected people is finally being challenged in a mainstream article. It has been questioned from the beginning in the alternative press, but seems to be reaching the mainstream press now.

A Dutch physician treating Ebola in Sierra Leone said:
Quote:
... hospital staff members took the temperature of one of the doomed patients four times a day for three consecutive days, and the patient never showed a fever. The readings were taken by a digital thermometer placed in the armpit, he said.

Based on what his staff observed, Zwinkels wrote, "it seems that only measuring the temperature as a form of triage is insufficient."

Five of his nursing assistants became infected. Four of them died.

If it's true that a subset of Ebola patients do not present with fever, then that throws a lot of policies into question, whether it is determining which secondary contact of an Ebola case is considered at high risk and require quarantine, to the effectiveness of temperature screening at airports and border crossings.