Catholic Info

Traditional Catholic Faith => Health and Nutrition => Topic started by: jman123 on August 08, 2014, 09:32:19 AM

Title: ebola question
Post by: jman123 on August 08, 2014, 09:32:19 AM
Is ebola spread in the air like the flu?  How can we protect ourselves from it?
Title: ebola question
Post by: compline on August 08, 2014, 10:16:07 AM
No, Ebola is not spread through the air. It may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected person or animal.
Title: ebola question
Post by: MariaCatherine on August 08, 2014, 10:55:27 AM
You might find the 'search' option helpful.
Title: ebola question
Post by: Croix de Fer on August 08, 2014, 12:57:39 PM
Ebola is, INDEED, airborne. Here are two empirical studies showing airborne transmission from monkey to monkey, and pigs to monkeys, respectfully.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7547435

http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html

Note the current outbreak of EBOV is 97% identical of the Zaire strain, which was studied in the aforementioned experiments.

There are a number of EBOV cases that indicate probable airborne transmission in this current outbreak, primarily among the medical staff. I would not say the current strain is wind-mediated like the influenza viruses, but it probably can be transmitted through air by inhalation or exposure to mucous membranes within 10 feet of an infected person.

There is also risk that this strain can mutate into a more transmissible strain due to the prolonged duration of serial passage (increasing number of infections and extended timetable of outbreak). To my knowledge (and I asked a top world-known virologist via tweet), the last known observation of this current EBOV's RNA sequence was about 4 months ago. Much serial passage has occurred since that time, meaning a mutation cannot be ruled out. However, the virologist doesn't think it has mutated up to this point.
Title: ebola question
Post by: Dolores on August 08, 2014, 01:17:03 PM
Quote from: compline
No, Ebola is not spread through the air. It may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected person or animal.


This is not entirely correct.  It is true that Ebola does not spread through the air on its own, if an infected person sneezes or coughs, it can be spread through tiny droplets of bodily fluid that move through the air.