Canada Health Covers Up Airborne Ebola Facts

[Scooter100]

Health Canada apparently changing the facts about the nature of the Ebola virus.

[Shamrock498]

Very interesting.

The definition of “Airborne” transmission always seemed to be a grey area to me. On one end of the continuim you have a virus on a vapor droplet so small that it can float in the air for hours and travel through ventilation systems. on the other end of the extreme you have virus suspended in fluids that are splatter sized, which if propelled directly onto (or into) someone could transmit infection. Imagine an ebola patient with an open artery spraying blood like a hose or coughing directly into someones face versus catching a virus hours after an infected person was merely exhaling in an area. the latter example is textbook definition of airborne but both people contracted a virus “through the air”, technically. Those are just two examples at the extremes. there is a lot of room in between those examples for droplets of any various size to carry virus. so at what point is an infected droplet considered “airborne” and another considered “direct” contact?

[Scooter100]

"...so at what point is an infected droplet considered “airborne” and another considered “direct” contact?"

I'm sure the above military weaponized biological warfare studies can show us without a doubt. They've been working on Ebola since the mid-70's. Been trying to search for those references, but can't seem to find them.....as if I had any hope in hell of ever finding them.

[Veto!]

Ebola, like all viruses, mutates. The Ebola Reston strain, written about in the very interesting nonfiction book, The Hot Zone, was airborne.

[grobdriver]

3 to 10 days.

[PA Engineer]

Yep. I noticed that today. I had put a link last night to the original data safety sheet on Ebola Surveillance Thread. The link was broken today and I just reposted it for the disinfection information. Interesting.

[PA Engineer]

I wonder how many "aerosolized organisms" are in a decent sized sneeze from the seat next to you on an airliner?????

At the end stage of the disease, one drop (body fluids) contains 500,000 to 1,000,000 virus. Think more along the line of the Norovirus and surface contact.

Yeah, a sneeze would be nasty. The difference in this case between aerosolized and airborne is a dishonest splitting of hairs.

Yeah it is not airborne, just like pepper spray aimed at you is not airborne.

The "crisis messaging" we keep receiving has nothing to do with the panic of the masses, but the fear and panic of our government. Ebola will very well strip away the facade of government competence.

Our LIVs are going to become very nasty when their false god of government fails them.

[Covenantor]

From CDC library: http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=11161#modalIdString_CDCImage_0

A large high resolution tiff photo file is available as well.

This photograph illustrates all the conditions you describe, from very fine mist to large "droplets". Note the very fine mist on the right side rising like smoke on air currents. The tiff image shows this better. The MIT study addresses the motion and distance this mist travels.

Now there are several FR posters that insist that this photo does not illustrate "airborne" transmission. One reason cited is that the current Ebola Zaire does notattack or effect the lungs.

However, the photo does illustrate mucous projected quite a distance and EVD does attack mucous tissue found in the mouth etc.

An MIT team recently published a paper that sneeze content travels substantially farther than previously imagined; larger "droplets" fall on average at a distance of one meter, hence the medical "three foot rule". Finer particles remain air borne longer and farther, some detected at 200 meters or the length of two football fields.

So we have a condition wehere there is direct contact in a small enclosed space, a cone of sorts, and fomites landing on surfaces within that zone and beyond, leading to indirect contact possibilties for some period of time. I suspect that this finer mist might find the eyes directly as well as nasal and throat mucousa.

Addressing the finer mist, the MIT study suggests that EVD mist borne particles could travel through ventilation systems much in the same manner as Legionaires Disease does. This scenario presents two conditions for EVD, the mist as an immediate transmission medium and the formation of fomites on the duct inner surfaces which have the possibility of later air borne transmission while providing a benign dark and moist surface. Again, like Legionaires disease.

Footnote: For a highly technical field, it has been difficult for me to find the medical specification of real world dimensions of a "droplet" size. I'm used to sieve sizes and such. If any one knows please pass it on.

[PA Engineer]

Presumably once the vomit dries the virus dies, but that could take days.

Especially in outdoor urban settings and mass transit during the winter months. That virus starts to be come very stable at <39 degrees fahrenheit. They keep telling us we are different than Africa. They don't know how right they are.

Imagine having infectious vomit on the sidewalk with snow.

[palmer]

I’ll resist the temptation to eat snow off the sidewalk. It is interesting that they can culture virus from frozen specimens (liquid nitrogen). So there’s really no limit to the amount of cold it can handle.

[PA Engineer]

I’ll resist the temptation to eat snow off the sidewalk. It is interesting that they can culture virus from frozen specimens (liquid nitrogen). So there’s really no limit to the amount of cold it can handle.

I couldn't help myself while thinking of it and gaming it. Imagine someone coming by cleaning the sidewalk with a snowblower. It would take on an entire different meaning of airborne distribution.

Sounds gross, but simply we cannot allow the virus to reach northern urban centers during the winter months. Fomites will be much more friendlier here than in Africa

Our patient 0 was vomiting on the grass of the apartment building before he was taken away by ambulance.

They have to pull those 13,500 visas now.

[Paladin2]

Great “work”. Thanks for posting.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You may ask just how big is an aerosolized organism?

The Ebola "virion" is typically 980 nanometers in length which is 3.9 × 10^-5 inches.

Just think how LITTLE material you need to get infected!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: Filoviruses have been reported capable to survive for weeks in blood and can also survive on contaminated surfaces, particularly at low temperatures (4°C). One study could not recover any Ebolavirus from experimentally contaminated surfaces (plastic, metal or glass) at room temperature. In another study, Ebolavirus dried onto glass, polymeric silicone rubber, or painted aluminum alloy is able to survive in the dark for several hours under ambient conditions (between 20 and 250C and 30–40% relative humidity) (amount of virus reduced to 37% after 15.4 hours), but is less stable than some other viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa). When dried in tissue culture media onto glass and stored at 4 °C, Zaire ebolavirus survived for over 50 days. This information is based on experimental findings only and not based on observations in nature. This information is intended to be used to support local risk assessments in a laboratory setting.

A study on transmission of ebolavirus from fomites in an isolation ward concludes that the risk of transmission is low when recommended infection control guidelines for viral hemorrhagic fevers are followed. Infection control protocols included decontamination of floors with 0.5% bleach daily and decontamination of visibly contaminated surfaces with 0.05% bleach as necessary.

[Paladin2]

femtograms?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Probably a good guess. Furthermore, the Ebola RNA genome constitutes only ≈1.1% of the virion mass! 99% carrier, 1% payload. Staggering, isn't it?

[exDemMom]

You are going to have to spell out exactly what the Canadian Public Health service is supposedly “hiding” because I don’t see it. I see that they rewrote and rearranged the page, but the information presented is pretty much the same.

Keep in mind that artificially generated aerosols are NOT relevant to the natural course of infection. While droplets can be propelled into the air through some hospital procedures and other activities (such as gathering up soiled wet sheets), that does NOT constitute an airborne mode of transmission. What it DOES mean is that you need complete PPE before engaging in activities that could generate droplets. No one is going to catch Ebola by being on the other side of a room from an Ebola patient because it is not naturally airborne.

[MeshugeMikey]

My post was meant as a parody, a possible overstatement of intentions..

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I heard that it can live up to 6 days outside the body. I suspect that the idiot’s family will all come down with it, I’m sorry to say.

[Patriot Babe]

It will be interesting if the guy that mopped up the vomit will come down with it. He was not wearing protective suit. I think he was wearing short pants exposing his legs as he splashed the water around.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!