Can You Get Ebola From a Bowling Ball?

A. Dr. Craig Spencer, the patient with Ebola currently 
in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center...

went bowling in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn 
on Wednesday evening. According to city health officials, he had been 
taking his temperature twice a day since he left Guinea on Oct. 14. 
His temperature was normal on Wednesday evening, and he did 
not yet have any other symptoms, such as nausea or diarrhea. 
Ebola experts say the disease cannot be transmitted before the 
appearance of symptoms.

Although the surface of a shared bowling ball is a likely place 
to find germs — and some people avoid bowling for this very reason
 — it is extremely unlikely that Ebola could be passed that way. 
There is no evidence that it has been passed, as colds or flu 
sometimes are, by touching surfaces that someone else touched 
after sneezing into their hand. Ebola is normally passed 
through contact with blood, vomit or diarrhea.

If someone left blood, vomit or feces on a bowling ball, 
and the next person to touch it did not even notice, 
and then put his fingers into his eyes, nose or mouth,
 it might be possible. But, the Ebola virus does not 
not normally build up to high levels in saliva or mucus 
until very late in the disease 
— several days after the initial fever sets in — 
and it is unlikely that someone that ill would have 
just gone bowling. 
Also, the Ebola virus is fragile and susceptible to drying out. 
It does not normally survive for more than a few hours 
on a hard, dry surface.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com