Posted on 10/26/2014 5:07:51 PM PDT by nomad
Point was not missed.
Monkeys tend to throw things, like feces, at each other. They also spit at each other. Technically, a virus that is transmitted by projectile spit or thrown feces is not “aerosol.”
Other studies have placed naive monkeys in the same room with Ebola monkeys, and they did not get sick.
It was not Ebola Reston. The sample used was taken directly from a woman in Africa who had died of Ebola. And this sample was considered the worst of the Ebola’s. And it was airborne.
Maybe so, but we don't need to act as if it might not be airborne. The experts who study this stuff do not take the chance.
The virus doesn’t change itself. The strains that are better able to incubate longer and spread easier, and result in a lower fatality rate fare better, having a non-human reservoir helps as well, so that even when the germ appears gone, it can re-emerge much later and cause another outbreak. Given that we also have pigs and bats in America, we should be extra sure that potential infectees do not have contact with possible non-human reservoirs .
Does the virus viability window increase in a colder and dryer environment? Will a Ebola viron remain viable in suspended droplet form or on environmental surfaces for longer periods of time in a cold environment?
Because if true, then even if it doesn`t significantly increase airborne exposure risk, if it increases surface survivability, it`s still a game changer as far as contact exposure.
A person is at his/her most contagious just before death--the body is probably covered with virus--and healthcare workers spending too much time wearing hot PPE and working long hours get tired and make mistakes. That's why they get sick.
The virus does not infect mucous-secreting respiratory tissues, and it is very large in comparison to respiratory viruses so can only fit inside the large droplet-sized particles. Droplet transmission is direct transmission, not airborne.
Their level of caution is admirable. I wish the level of caution was not lost down the line, however.
It’s as airborne as the common cold already. If someone has Ebola and sneezes the virus is there. The common cold is spread mostly by touching an object that has been touched or coughed on by someone with the virus and then by that person rubbing or touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Ebola spreads the same exact way.
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
Conclusion: Ebola won't spread in the US.
The most risk appears to be attached to the extreme measures needed to save someone experiencing organ failure.
That's a highly likely situation when Flu season starts.
I know exactly what the experts who study viruses like Ebola do.
I really do not understand the fixation with airborne, and why it won’t go away despite every expert in the world saying it isn’t airborne.
Most airborne viruses are not very pathogenic and have low death rates. They cause more deaths overall because they infect so many people, but the chance that a specific person will die is pretty low.
To put that into context, the CDC estimates that 5-20% of the US population gets influenza every year. Between 3000 and 49,000 die from it, with the average about 16,000. That’s less than a 0.33% fatality rate, calculated using the numbers that give the highest possible CFR.
Rainbow Six
In a lab, organisms are kept in controlled environments. Natural environments tend to be quite variable. Biological molecules do not tolerate variability very well--the more frequently the temperature changes, especially between freezing and non-freezing temperatures, the more damaged those molecules become.
In short, I don't expect the virus would survive long outside of a controlled environment.
Droplets fall to the ground pretty quickly, so you aren't likely to be exposed unless you walk barefoot... which you shouldn't be doing if you know someone is sick nearby.
The chance that you will ever see someone with Ebola is extremely small (unless you are volunteering to go help out in Africa)--but if you *do* ever come across a situation where a symptomatic Ebola patient has been in the area, you want to sterilize every surface that patient has touched. Bleach is very effective at killing virus.
Slyfox,
IIRC that incident/experiment was not with E. Zaire, the type that is now decimating w Africa.
Maggief,
Need the info on what kind of Ebola it was that 2as transmitted from one room to another, with those monkeys.
Are those Bammy’s “experts”?
Puhleeze!
Just go away! Your blatant indoctrination always shows up on theses threads.
We cannot stop Air Travel because it will “disinscentive” resume enhancers to go to Africa? Like we did not handle the tsunami in Thailand without “Commercial flights?’
Go Away you.
You say drying kills it, well will freezing kill it?
If so, then will near freezing temps kill it? The site says USAMRIID`s answer is no.
It changes the equation due to the simple fact that at 50 F, that droplet will not dry out as fast.
And I`ve read that drying onto a glass surface will not kill Ebola, that it can survive up to 50 days on a protected glass substrate.
Will the colder days increase that viability? We need to know as we Northerners do deal with cold temps.
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