...
(If you can only get it from bodily fluids, what are these people doing at these funerals?.......Sounds to me it is much more contagious than they let on.)
understand a couple of points:
1. many African cultures have traditions that include washing of the body before burial. It's not hard to imagine people kissing a loved one good bye at a funeral - I think handling a dead body may not be weird in their culture.
2. These cultures are still relatively primitive - the man on the street doesn't know anything about viruses or bacteria. What he knows is that evil spirits are causing problems for his family - perhaps someone has conjured up a hex on his people to take revenge for something his grandfather did.
3. there is massive distrust of governments and associated hospitals. In countries that have seen so much corruption and war, I think it's natural to not trust the government. If the gov't says to not handle sick people and bring them to the hospital instead, people are more likely to say, "screw the gov't, they don't know anything anyhow. I'm going to take care of my sick aunt myself."
4. Because of the low level of care, hospitals are places people go to as a last resort, and they end up die there, so hospitals have a reputation as a place where people go to die. You would never take someone who is just ill to the hospital. Before they are on their death bead when they are just sick, people have been cared for at home, and this is how the disease spreads.
I don't think it's more contagious than people let on, it's just that there are many cultural norms and realities in Africa that make it really really hard to contain.