Purdue professor says Ebola 'primed' to go airborne

WRTV-TV ^ | October 12, 2014 | Tanya Spencer

[SaraJohnson]

Not being able to breathe is the most frightening feeling or condition one can suffer through. Sorry you went through that virus and so thankful you survived it.

[Interesting Times]

As far as viruses go, Ebola is from what I understand, more along the lines of Hepatitis and HIV and neither of those has mutated to any great degree overtime and none of them have changed their mode of transmission nor have they ever “hooked up” with other viruses, despite many more years and many, many thousands of people having been infected than Ebola and among people who have contracted and or been exposed to other viruses.

Ebola Reston (1989) was airborne, and it didn't cause symptoms of illness in infected humans, though it devastated monkeys. I'd call those significant changes.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping.

[TEXOKIE]

A sad thank you for your gracious comment, tomkat.

[Red in Blue PA]

Obama: “Ebola is not something that is easily transmitted”

Minute 1:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij90EjI3nQE

[Paul R.]

What a brave, strong, woman. And what a great faith in God... By the time I got close to the end of the article, I had tears in my eyes.

[UCANSEE2]

Sneezing is not normally typical in Ebola cases.

I sneeze at least once a day, and I haven't been sick in ages.

A sneeze or cough can eject material 20 to 40 feet.

So what happens if an ebola infected patient gets a 'tickle' in their nose ?

[UCANSEE2]

There's a big difference in droplets and aerosols

That is true, and a big point that most people miss.

The virus has to be able to reduce it's weight to be small enough to be aerosolized. Or change it's shape.

[UCANSEE2]

I don't know what this hype is all about. The virus is not airborne. One might want to create an 'airborne' virus to use as a bioweapon. It might get out of hand and escape containment.

NAHHHHH... never happen.

oops.

Scientists create hybrid flu that can go airborne

"A team of scientists in China has created hybrid viruses by mixing genes from H5N1 and the H1N1 strain behind the 2009 swine flu pandemic, and showed that some of the hybrids can spread through the air between guinea pigs. The results are published in Science1.

Flu hybrids can arise naturally when two viral strains infect the same cell and exchange genes. This process, known as reassortment, produced the strains responsible for at least three past flu pandemics, including the one in 2009."

[UCANSEE2]

BTW, you might want to look at this.

Researchers have crossed two strains of avian flu virus to create one that can be transmitted through the air — and possibly settle on the cilia of lung cells

[2ndDivisionVet]

Everyone sneezes.

[MD Expat in PA]

Ebola Reston (1989) was airborne, and it didn't cause symptoms of illness in infected humans, though it devastated monkeys. I'd call those significant changes.

It is not an absolute and irrefutable foregone conclusion that Ebola Reston was “airborne”. From what I understand the pigs and monkeys were not always kept in separate areas or labs at that facility at the time of the Reston event and even when they were, there has been some question as to whether all the proper protocols were always followed by the animal caretakers, i.e. it has been alleged that they didn’t always change their PPE and wash down completely between feeding the pigs and feeding the monkeys, therefore perhaps inadvertently transmitting the disease between the pigs and monkeys and visa versa themselves.

http://guardianlv.com/2014/09/experts-dispute-the-potential-for-the-ebola-virus-to-go-airborne/

The good news is that Reston Ebola strain of the Ebola virus does not seem to cause the disease in humans. The bad news is that it (Ebola Reston) does seem to affect pigs differently than it does in other mammals in that it affects their respiratory system and could make pigs able to “possibly” transmit Ebola Reston to other animals including primates via aerosol transmission (which is still not the same as “airborne”).

http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2014/08/03/are-we-sure-ebola-isnt-airborne/

http://globalbiodefense.com/2014/09/29/airborne-ebola-flight-fancy/

[palmer]

And most every week, someone wins Powerball.

After they sell 100's of millions of tickets. With Ebola each new human infection is one ticket. They have sold 10k or 20k tickets. Even if they sell a million tickets there's only a tiny chance one of those would be the mutation to make it spread rapidly. Keep in mind that most mutations will make the virus less deadly or benign (rapid spread or not).

[palmer]

Bingo. Just thinking the same thing...but on the PLANE.

The guy on the flight into Nigeria died a few hours after he got off. He was dying on the plane and killed the woman next to him (probably a droplet of bloody vomit) and killed the flight attendants who had to clean up not knowing it was Ebola. But the other 46 passengers were not infected.

[palmer]

Ebola Reston (1989) was airborne,

The cages were 20 cm apart.

[palmer]

The main reason that it seems to have been airborne in Reston is that the strain infected the upper respiratory tract in the pigs. That would make their coughs very virus laden. But with cages 20cm apart it seems that any strain of Ebola would have been "airborne".

But that also means that level 2 protection is not adequate since it doesn't seal out droplets.

[PapaBear3625]

ping

[palmer]

I would not be too worried about crossed strains or new strains of Ebola because if that happens it will be in the West African petri dish and the result will be obvious (millions infected in a short period of time in that city, then spreading from there).

The bigger concern is that sneezing or coughing will spread the current strain. A droplet is a droplet and unless a person is "sealed" (level 4) they will get a droplet somewhere like the nurse in Texas.

The biggest concern is that 150 new potential cases are arriving per day. Once it spreads from the "I came from Africa" population then the emergency rooms will be overwhelmed.

[MD Expat in PA]

Agreed. And it should also be noted that from what I understand and have read, the infected monkeys did not seem able to transmit the virus to other monkeys absent close contact and or close proximity as the virus did not and does not effect them the same way as it does in pigs.

Bottom line - stay away from coughing pigs. (And of course also far from feces flinging monkeys.) LOL!

[exDemMom]

"It can enter the lung from the airway side," Sanders said. "So this argues that Ebola is primed to have respiratory transmission.

All that does is show that the virus can cause an infection if it accesses the respiratory system. It does not show that the virus is capable of aerosolizing. In order to become transmissible by the aerosol route, it would have to switch from being a blood-borne pathogen to being a respiratory pathogen, which would require some significant changes in its cell-binding characteristics. Plus, it would have to physically change to become smaller to fit inside aerosol-size particles and to retain function once it dries out. These changes aren't very likely--might as well expect piglets to start being born with wings.