CDC throws cold water on talk of ‘airborne’ Ebola transmission

The Washington Times ^ | December 1, 2014 | Tom Howell, Jr.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Hoping to tamp down fears about Ebola, the Obama administration said Monday the virus wreaking havoc in West Africa is unlikely to mutate and spread by air.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a fact sheet that says samples from the current outbreak, which has killed about 5,000 abroad and elicited fear in the U.S., are nearly identical — 97 percent the same — as the strains studied when Ebola was discovered in 1976.

Scientists monitoring the virus have not seen any evidence that Ebola may be mutating in a way that would make it spread more easily, the CDC said, and changes resulting in new forms of transmission would require multiple mutations over a very long period, anyway.

“As if Ebola isn’t a scary enough disease, some people have wondered whether or not Ebola could mutate and become airborne,” the CDC fact sheet says. “Has it become or could it become an even scarier, more deadly, and more easily spread super-bug?

“No. Scientists have not seen any evidence to suggest that the Ebola virus may be mutating to become more contagious or more easily spread.”

For months, leading scientists have advised Congress and the public that Ebola is spread through direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[cherry]

let the CDC "experts" go in an clean the feces form obola patients and have them wipe the vomit off of faces and hands and then clean open wounds.....

we'll see how "safe" they feel....

so easy for the elite "leaders" to order the little people around...

[FreedomStar3028]

Such HORSESHIT!!

These same people have claimed multiple times on the record that Ebola has one of the highest adaptability of all the super bugs, quickest to mutate. Was even reported IT WAS AIRBORNE in the 70’s.

The monkeys in Virginia had an AIRBORNE STRAIN!

I call BULL.

[lee martell]

I stopped consulting the CDC for accurate disease control information a long, long time ago.

[doc maverick]

CDC is now an extension of lies coming from this administration. This virus is airborne. If not, the they shouldn’t have to wear respirators, but they are.....and souped up respirators are being worn. Those aren’t plain old N95 respirators they’re wearing.
Also, Obama is trying to throw us all off track with this hyped up Ferguson manure.
He’s hiding something big.
Count on it.

[TChad]

“No. Scientists have not seen any evidence to suggest that the Ebola virus may be mutating to become more contagious or more easily spread.”

So, perhaps the CDC has underestimated how contagious and easily spread Ebola is for a very long time.

Has Obama retracted his dangerous lie that you can't catch Ebola from riding on a plane or bus?

Politicized medicine makes me sick.

[BradyLS]

If this administration's CDC says that the virus most likely can't be transmitted through the air, that means the virus most certainly can be transmitted through the air.

[PGalt]

Health/life BUMP! Thanks for posting.

[R. Scott]

Why do caregivers wear level 3 biohazard suits if it can’t be transmitted through the air?

[Mr. Jeeves]

Could be 100% true...but who is going to believe the CDC ever again?

[null and void]

The fact that Ebola Reston is arguably already an airborne strain argues against an absolute statement that Ebola can't, just can't go airborne, doesn't it?

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your......

(Since all records of obama's past were lost in a tragic boating accident and fire, no one can be certain that the guy in the red circle isn't him...)

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...

[garyb]

http://virologydownunder.blogspot.com/2014/08/ebola-virus-may-be-spread-by-droplets.html "Direct contact includes physical touch but also contact with infectious droplets; the contact is directly from one human to the next, rather than indirectly via an intermediate object or a lingering cloud of infectious particles. You cannot catch EVD by an airborne route, but you may from droplet sprays. Wait, what?? This is where a simple definition becomes really important." .... "Why that is so is not known, but perhaps it is because this virus does not survive being dried down, or that primates don’t produce enough virus in what is coughed out to make infectious droplet nuclei. To be clear, there may be some EBOV in these droplet nuclei - but it has never been shown to cause disease, even when that route has been looked for in the same household as a case of EVD."

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[Old Sarge]

Was there not some super-hospital in Minnesota that claimed already that the virus is airborne?

[Dark Knight]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a fact sheet that says samples from the current outbreak, which has killed about 5,000 abroad and elicited fear in the U.S., are nearly identical — 97 percent the same — as the strains studied when Ebola was discovered in 1976. <<

Monkey DNA is 95% similar to human IIRC... As A previous post says, it is not airborne, as long as you don’t include in an aerosol...like a sneeze...

The proper facility for treatment of Ebola has separate air...why is that?

DK

[Old Sarge]

The Obola Administration assures us we are safe.

Everything the Obola Administration says is a lie.

Discuss.

[Kackikat]

‘airborne’ is a different definition than the spewing of a sneeze or cough, so don’t be confused.

[Smokin' Joe]

The big discussion has been one of whether Ebola (except for Ebola Reston) is airborne. Certainly contaminated droplets can carry the virus and infect others in range, and part of the debate has been over what that range was considered to be--CDC started at 3 feet, that has been upgraded to 6 feet, and there is speculation that those contaminated droplets may go even farther and still be effective.

Whether individual viral organisms can remain viable in the air has yet to be determined, and in the case of Ebola Reston (with the research monkeys) there are other possible means of transmission, including droplets, which might not fit the clinical definition of "airborne".

Confusingly, that does not mean the virus can't travel through the air, just that it will do so as part of a particle or droplet.

While I jokingly made reference to it being "airmobile" instead of "airborne", perhaps, for now, that is a better description.

That said, here's the catch. We DO know some means of becoming infected which are relatively common among those who become infected, and there may be multiple different and unrecognized routes the virus may take to get into a human and start replicating.

The ones which are less common may be effective only under specific conditions, with certain types of hosts, affected by genetics, body chemistry, or exposure to other pathogens in the patient's history which might enhance or reduce the probability of being infected. Those parameters will be tough to identify, no matter what, but as the body of knowledge increases, both of patients and survivors, perhaps common characteristics can be identified, something which could take years after the outbreak ends to accomplish.

The only really major hospital I know in Minnesota is Mayo Clinic, and I'm not sure if they published anything on whether any of the human-infecting strains of Ebola is airborne or not.

Ebola Reston, which doesn't affect humans but is lethal to monkeys, is strongly believed by many to be airborne.

[RememberRonnie]

If Ebola were transmitted over the air, West Africa would be empty by now.