Detection of Ebola Virus in Oral Fluid Specimens during Outbreaks of Ebola Virus Hemorrhagic Fever in the Republic of Congo (2003 outbreak) From DiscussionRT-PCR assays for the detection of Ebola virus yielded consistent results with both oral fluid specimens and serum specimens. RT-PCR of oral fluid samples confirmed all of the results found with blood specimens. The assessment of sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%) of standard RT-PCR diagnostic tools that use oral fluid samples for the detection of Ebola virus indicates that these samples can be used for confirmation when blood/serum collection is not possible.
Given the current diagnostic algorithm for laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola that involve confirmation by antigen detection, RT-PCR, or detection of IgM antibodies in the blood, detection of Ebola virus by RT-PCR in oral fluid specimens seems to be sufficiently reliable as a diagnostic tool in outbreak investigations.
If oral fluids are useful for diagnosing Ebola, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that oral fluids cannot be a transmission vector.
Oops, meant to ping you to the cidrap paper as well.
I really should make a ping list that’s an actual list, and not just in my sleep deprived brain.
Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995: Risk Factors for Patients without a Reported ExposureAbstract
In 1995, 316 people became ill with Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The exposure source was not reported for 55 patients (17%) at the start of this investigation, and it remained unknown for 12 patients after extensive epidemiologic evaluation. Both admission to a hospital and visiting a person with fever and bleeding were risk factors associated with infection. Nineteen patients appeared to have been exposed while visiting someone with suspected EHF, although they did not provide care. Fourteen of the 19 reported touching the patient with suspected EHF; 5 reported that they had no physical contact. Although close contact while caring for an infected person was probably the major route of transmission in this and previous EHF outbreaks, the virus may have been transmitted by touch, droplet, airborne particle, or fomite; thus, expansion of the use of barrier techniques to include casual contacts might prevent or mitigate future epidemics.
There you go. That is pretty clear to me.