This is one point I’m tying to make, but perhaps not getting across as I believe it is obvious. That is a shortcoming of mine, I tend to leave what I see as obvious behind.
I’m also not trying to play down the potential of this virus being airborne, particularly due to the fact of the effect it is having on those infected (as you stated previously, infecting the upper respiratory system).
I guess it would be more helpful to state that an infected individual has a very low chance of spreading the infection, AT THIS TIME from what is known, by way of our respiratory system. Most fluids are testing positive for the virus during the “showing stage” through the “recovered fully” stage in most who have been studied in previous outbreaks, but one thing that struck me in these previous studies was how viable was the virus in bodily fluids in the later stages or post infection of survivors, say 4-20 weeks and longer after testing positive for the virus. Needless to say, it would be difficult to gather such information due to the nature of the virus and its ultimate consequences.
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you know squat - they were calling it airborne in 2012
From Pigs to Monkeys, Ebola Goes Airborne
Nov 21, 2012 | Jane Huston | Research & Policy
by rubber bullets 2010, via flickr
When news broke that the Ebola virus had resurfaced in Uganda, investigators in Canada were making headlines of their own with research indicating the deadly virus may spread between species, through the air.
The team, comprised of researchers from the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, the University of Manitoba, and the Public Health Agency of Canada, observed transmission of Ebola from pigs to monkeys. They first inoculated a number of piglets with the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus. Ebola-Zaire is the deadliest strain, with mortality rates up to 90 percent. The piglets were then placed in a room with four cynomolgus macaques, a species of monkey commonly used in laboratories. The animals were separated by wire cages to prevent direct contact between the species.
Within a few days, the inoculated piglets showed clinical signs of infection indicative of Ebola infection. In pigs, Ebola generally causes respiratory illness and increased temperature. Nine days after infection, all piglets appeared to have recovered from the disease.
Within eight days of exposure, two of the four monkeys showed signs of Ebola infection. Four days later, the remaining two monkeys were sick too. It is possible that the first two monkeys infected the other two, but transmission between non-human primates has never before been observed in a lab setting.
While the study provided evidence that transmission of Ebola between species is possible, researchers still cannot say for certain how that transmission actually occurred. There are three likely candidates for the route of transmission: airborne, droplet, or fomites.
Airborne and droplet transmission both technically travel through the air to infect others; the difference lies in the size of the infective particles. Smaller droplets persist in the air longer and are able to travel farther- these droplets are truly “airborne.” Larger droplets can neither travel as far nor persist for very long. Fomites are inanimate objects that can transmit disease if they are contaminated with infectious agents. In this study, a monkey’s cage could have been contaminated when workers were cleaning a nearby pig cage. If the monkey touched the contaminated cage surface and then its mouth or eyes, it could have been infected.
Author Dr. Gary Kobinger suspects that the virus is transmitted through droplets, not fomites, because evidence of infection in the lungs of the monkeys indicated that the virus was inhaled.
What do these findings mean? First and foremost, Ebola is not suddenly an airborne disease. As expert commentators at ProMED stated, the experiments “demonstrate the susceptibility of pigs to Zaire Ebolavirus and that the virus from infected pigs can be transmitted to macaques under experimental conditions… they fall short of establishing that this is a normal route of transmission in the natural environment.” Furthermore, because human Ebola outbreaks have historically been locally contained, it is unlikely that Ebola can spread between humans via airborne transmission.
However, the study does raise the possibility that pigs are a host for Ebola. If this proves to be true in the wild, there are direct ramifications for prevention and control measures. It is still unclear what role pigs play in the chain of transmission. To continue work on answering this question, the team plans to take samples from pigs in areas known to have recently experienced Ebola outbreaks.
The Disease Daily has previously reported on Dr. Kobinger’s work on the Ebola vaccine.
- See more at: http://www.healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/pigs-monkeys-ebola-goes-airborne-112112#sthash.kwJrr1U7.dpuf
Yeah, I understood what you were saying.
I think the problems you are having with some here is that they can’t be consoled.
What drew me to post on the thread is the same reason I have posted on other threads, and that is the intentional or perhaps unintentional mixing of the characteristics recorded for the Reston Strain, a essentially one time event when they scooped up a monkey (patient zero) who had contracted Ebola Zaire apparently in a cave or breeding area for fruit bats which carry the disease.
The Ebola Zaire was passed from this monkey in a mutated form to other monkeys in a group while being transported.
This new strain, after autopsy’s were performed was found to have affected the monkeys lungs. Anecdotal information from interviews seemed to indicate that the virus was airborne only to the extent that the upper respiratory infection was causing sneezing, coughing and that combined with a broken AC system and the use of potable fans, apparently spread the stuff all over the facility. (based on what I could gather together from numerous different takes on what happened.)BTW, the place was a hell hole for animals. I saw the pictures.
All that said, that strain does not affect humans and has not been seen naturally since.
As for the strain causing these infections in Africa now. all the data, and all the past studies on the spreading mechanisms, can be summarized in a couple sentences as Emory did here.
“How is it spread?
Ebola is spread similarly to HIV or Hepatitis B or C. It is spread through two ways:
1.Direct contact with bodily fluids (e.g., blood) of the infected patients
2.Needle stick injuries from sharps that have been in direct contact with the infected patients’ bodily fluids
(Influenza (“the flu”) is much more contagious than Ebola.)
And as far as I am concerned, That is That.....