Updated: 10/9/14 4:34 p.m.

In light of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the U.S., I am sure you have even more questions about the disease.

These are some of mine: why did he die and the aid workers treated for the virus in Atlanta survived? What drugs are used to fight the illness and do we have enough of it?

Can animals like dogs get infected and pass the virus along to humans? (That was the thought behind euthanizing Excalibur, the dog that belonged to the nurse being treated in Spain.)

Can you catch the Ebola virus by touching an infected door knob? Is it inevitable that an outbreak will hit the United States?

We've received some of your questions in the comments section below and we ask that you keep them coming. We will be speaking to experts at the CDC to get those questions answered. Check back with the News Muse blog as we will post the answers to the questions and listen to GPB Radio throughout the day next week as we will answer them on-air.

This is a serious health issue and we are here to help to stay informed.

To that effect, GPB Savannah’s Sarah McCammon posed some of my questions to Michael Schwartz, Department Chair of Pharmacy Practices at South University School of Pharmacy in Savannah, Georgia . Here are his answers.

GPB Savannah’s Sarah McCammon:Where did the Ebola virus come from?

Michael Schwartz, Department Chair of Pharmacy Practices at South University School of Pharmacy:Ebola virus is an interesting virus. It falls in the filovirus family. Initially named after an area of Africa. That’s how it was named; it kind of falls into a hemorrhagic type virus which causes you to bleed for lack of a better word. There are a number of viruses out there in the world that are endemic to various countries that fall under hemorrhagic fever type viruses.

There is Korean hemorrhagic fever (inaudible) - there is a number of them. Ebola is one of those viruses that just happens to cause that kind of damage to the body - not only the bleeding, you know attacks the liver, attacks the pancreas. It can attack a number of areas as well as your immune system.

GPB Savannah’s Sarah McCammon:How does a person get it ?

Michael Schwartz, Department Chair of Pharmacy Practices at South University School of Pharmacy: What we know, from again most cases of Ebola (is spread), we know that close intimate contact, we also know that exposure to blood, vomiting, sucretions, splashes or sprays, potentially spit in a mucuous membrane, eyes, nose, mouth that sort of thing, handling dead bodies. As you know cultures are very different in parts of the world and funeral rites obviously can very very personal in some areas.

So things that we would normally never do here in the states, handling of certain bodies, we know that that’s potentially is an ability. There has been some discussion about aerosol transmission, you know would you do something - you know procedures where you might generate a splash, a spew or something like that. Obviously being very close to that would put you at increased risk. That’s the data that we have so far on this and it appears this virus behaves in a closer transmission way.

GPB Savannah’s Sarah McCammon: How can you tell if you’re infected?

Michael Schwartz, Department Chair of Pharmacy Practices at South University School of Pharmacy:Great question.The incubation period of the virus is historically between two and 21 days. That’s a pretty wide range, the average being a week to 10 days. So viral infections often have pretty generic symptoms: fever, tired, headache, nausea, vomiting, a rash, a number of things - kind of nondescript, non-specific - obviously some viruses make you feel much worse than others. The common cold, yeah okay we’ve all had a cold, you feel kind of rundown, a little cruddy. Some days you feel much sicker than others. Ebola obviously tends to be one of those that makes you feel much sicker. The key would be again recognition and awareness of “could I be a candidate for this?”

And that being traveled to an affected area, contact with an immediate family member - you know that sort of thing - someone who has come from that area, a known splash, cuts, you know, blood borne contacts with that sort of thing and then if you had those certainly and got symptoms within a window of that that raises your level of suspicion and then of course you know there are laboratory tests that we can look at, generic tests as well as potential looking for virus in your blood specimens.

GPB Savannah’s Sarah McCammon: Do you think the infection of Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas will lead to a bigger outbreak in the U.S.?

Michael Schwartz, Department Chair of Pharmacy Practices at South University School of Pharmacy:You know ask me that quesiton maybe in 21 days. We know when he traveled; we know when he got back into the states and we know when he had daily contact with certain individuals. Obviously those individuals are known at this point. There is a log; we are tracking those household contacts. As a matter of fact I think I saw on the news, a couple of those are actually quarantined by legal order in their apartment for the next bit.

So I think we’ll have a better answer on that in a week or two. If they don’t have anybody else with symptoms or any problem, I think we’ll have at least an answer somewhat in a developed country “okay this is how it (is) or not spread. Again you can probably be rest assured that they are looking at who was on that flight as well. We’ve looked at aviation medicine for a long time - common issues of you know tuberculosis or other communicable diseases on airplanes.

Most interest will be the people sitting a couple of rows around him obviously and again we’ll probably have better data in two to three weeks. I think it would be very containable because we have a pretty good idea of who this guy has been around.

GPB Savannah’s Sarah McCammon: Is there anything else we should know?

Michael Schwartz, Department Chair of Pharmacy Practices at South University School of Pharmacy: I think hospitals and patients just be informed. There has always been infectious disease in the world. As you get a little older you talk to people - you know chicken pox, measles virus, we spread measles virus. All these things are often spread aerosol or respitory. Thankfully some of these viruses are much more difficult to spread. Some people don’t have that to worry about. A lot of this is just awareness. I would encourage folks who think well I’m just student healthcare professional or I’m just a new nurse, new resident physician, new pharmacist, whatever - you’re the one who’s going to actually see these patients first rather than some attending who comes down to check on things a couple of times a day.

The real opportunity to make a difference is at the frontline so don’t be at all afraid of asking the questions about travel and illness and don’t be afraid to speak up.