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To: null and void

Okay, I need to address this unfinished business.

The survivability of virus in various bodily fluids is addressed in these two papers:

Rowe, A.K. et al., J Infect Dis 1999; 179(Suppl 1):S28-35 (PMID: 9988162)

Rodriguez, L.L. et al., J Infect Dis 1999; 179(Suppl 1):S170-6 (PMID: 9988181)

These are not the only papers on the subject, but are representative of the type and quality of paper that address it.

As you will be able to see in the papers, RNA was isolated from several bodily fluids even 100 or more days after first symptoms. This does not mean much, however, since RNA alone is not infectious. Also, no RNA was present in any sample collected 700 days after symptoms, so all residual virus *does* eventually clear.

However, Rodriguez et al. went a step further and cultured virus from the samples. Through virus culture, they found infectious virus in a semen sample collected 82 days after symptoms first appeared (table 1). Note that patients I and J had RNA in the semen for a longer period, but it was not verified to be infectious.

I saw somewhere that people are now recommended to avoid sexual relations for 7 weeks after resolution of disease. That is not sufficient, IMO. The recommendation should be for 3 full months (12 weeks) or maybe longer, to incorporate a good buffer zone. Ideally, they should test to verify that all viral RNA has cleared before giving the patient a green light, although that is probably costly and inconvenient.

I do recall reading that a man gave Ebola to his wife 6 weeks after he recovered, but I have not been able to locate that reference again.

There is some evidence that virus persists in breast milk, as well, but this has barely been addressed in the papers I have read. In one paper (Bausch et al., J Infect Dis 2007; 196:S142–7; PMID: 17940942), RNA was found 15 days after disease onset. This may not be as big a transmission factor as virus in semen since Ebola is so deadly to babies that a pregnant or breastfeeding mother probably already lost her baby by the time she recovers or dies from Ebola.

You may use this information as you wish.


108 posted on 08/29/2014 5:54:16 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom

Memo to self. Do not hire a recent Ebola survivor as a wet nurse...


109 posted on 08/29/2014 7:10:16 AM PDT by null and void (If Bill Clinton was the first black president, why isn't Barack Obama the first woman president?)
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