There is currently an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it will most likely be months until the outbreak is over.

Ebola is considered to be one of the most lethal viruses known to mankind. Discovered in 1976, the virus is known for its hardiness and the 90 percent mortality rate of its deadliest strains.

With more than 135 deaths in three weeks in Guinea, health officials are trying to get the situation under control, and trying to find as many people who may have come in contact with the disease as they can.

But how does this disease affect the rest of the world? How has it affected international travel, and what will it mean for the future?

Ebola hemorrhagic fever was discovered in Zaire and has wiped out small villages before. However, it has never managed to make its way to a large city, like it has now in Conakry, Guinea, which has a population of 1.5 million.

Ebola is caught easily, and once symptoms present themselves, the victim usually dies within 10 days. A member of the filoviridae family, which includes Marburg and other hemorrhagic fevers, Ebola can take up to 21 days to present symptoms and can be transmitted through semen for up to seven weeks after infection.

It is transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, sweat and tears. It has even been found on human skin. Symptoms include headaches, fevers, muscle aches and internal and sometimes external bleeding, as the virus aims to destroy the body's endothelial cells.

With such a dangerous disease present, how has this affected international travel? Many hotels in Liberia and Guinea, where there are confirmed cases, have experienced an 80 percent drop in their hotel reservations. When the phone rings in the hotel lobby, it has been mainly to cancel a reservation.

Several countries, including Senegal, have banned flights coming from and going to Guinea and Liberia out of fear. Both Paris and Puerto Rico have experienced Ebola scares on returning flights, though both, thankfully, were not Ebola.

While many countries remain on high alert, the Guinea and Liberia airports have taken to using body temperature readers on all passengers leaving the country, checking for signs of fever — one of the telltale signs of Ebola. But how efficient is this system?

Ebola can take up to three weeks before symptoms — including fever — become present, so it's possible for symptoms to hide in the body undetected. Scanning temperature is a good start, but it isn't foolproof.

Originally, the spread of infectious diseases such as this was likely within a community, but rarely did it jump continents, with the exception of the bubonic plague. However, this is not the 1300s, and our medical care today is infinite compared to what it was then.

But people seem to forget about international travel, and that an infectious disease, if not detected, is only a plane ride away. If Ebola is newly contracted and the person exhibits no symptoms, then no body temperature scanner would be able to catch it. And while Ebola was once limited to the lower-populated parts of Africa, it has spread to the capital of Guinea.

Some speculate that those who contract it are too poor to travel, but at the rate it is spreading, and with the WHO speculating that the disease will last several more months, that idea really doesn't apply any longer. Anyone can catch Ebola, and anyone can spread it, and it is important to understand that just because some countries have an ocean distancing themselves from an outbreak, it doesn't make them invincible.

As always, take precautions when you travel — wash your hands, try to avoid touching your face. Take the time to read the country's newspaper and find out what events are taking place there. It never hurts to be careful, and it's always helpful to be prepared.