By Sarah Carroll

If you’re anything like us, then you’ve been washing your hands like crazy and side-eyeing your co-workers every time they cough because the ebola outbreak is no joke.

Eight people here in the United States have been infected and one patient passed away from the virus, and if you’ve watched the news lately, they make it sound like it’s only a matter of time until it spreads throughout the rest of the country.

But is it time to panic? Should you cancel all your travel plans and avoid public gatherings?

Carson called up Dr. Roshini Raj, a board-certified gastroenterologist and internist who works as an attending physician at NYU Medical Center/Tisch Hospital and an assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine, to get some answers.

What have we learned about ebola since it started spreading in the United States?

I think we’ve learned a lot from the recent experience with Thomas Duncan in Dallas because he actually was exposed to several people and we got the good news recently that other than the healthcare workers, the other people, civilians I’ll call them, none of them became infected. So I think for the general population, this is not something that we need to panic about. I do think healthcare workers, however, like myself, and other people, nurses, people that are on the front lines of hospitals, they need to be definitely fully trained and up-to-date on the latest CDC recommendations on how to take care of themselves.

How hard is it to contract the ebola virus?

You have to remember that the people that get sick by being in contact with ebola patients, it’s when the patients are really sick and they’re coming into very close contact. That’s not going to happen if you’re going to a football game or even riding on the subway. That’s when you’re really taking care of this person. You’re handling them and I think what’s going on in Africa and why it’s spreading so quickly over there is [that] these are homes that may not even have running water. It’s not the same level of sanitation that we have over here. So, I would say for the general person, if you don’t work in a hospital, you’re probably going to be just fine.

If we look at other cases that have been going on here in the United States, they’re all doing well except for unfortunately Thomas Duncan, who very sadly, was not diagnosed right away. He was sent home for a few days and got even sicker.

Can you catch ebola at the gym?

I want to just say that while we talk about bodily fluids and ebola, while it could be potentially present in your sweat, the only time that it’s really at the level that it would be in your sweat would be when you’re extremely sick. You would not be going to the gym, so let’s just put that out there! Don’t worry about that.

But you can get, unfortunately, viruses. Cold and flu viruses can live on those treadmills or elliptical machines. There are some skin bacteria that can cause severe skin infections.

For more information about Dr. Raj, check out her website.

Originally published on CBS Radio