Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: exDemMom
Ebola is not, never has been, and never will be an airborne transmissible disease.

You seem very sure of this. There is "airborne" (dry virus particles floating through the air), and then there is droplet/aerosol transmission, which IS an area of concern. Real live patients cough and sneeze. Hard vomiting may send droplets though the air.

96 posted on 10/13/2014 4:24:34 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies ]


To: PapaBear3625
You seem very sure of this. There is "airborne" (dry virus particles floating through the air), and then there is droplet/aerosol transmission, which IS an area of concern. Real live patients cough and sneeze. Hard vomiting may send droplets though the air.

I am absolutely sure of this. Ebola has never been documented to transmit by aerosols (which are not droplets). All cases of Ebola have been traced to direct contact transmission. One paper mentioned the possibility of fomite transmission, but it was inconclusive.

Droplets, by definition, are 5 micrometers or larger in diameter, and fall to the ground quickly. Patients *might* generate droplets, but those droplets would only be infectious if they are contaminated by blood. The cells that produce mucus are not infected by Ebola.

Aerosols are particles smaller than 5 micrometers, that are capable of hovering in the air for prolonged periods, or can travel on breezes. The majority of aerosol particles emitted by humans are less than 1 micrometer in diameter. These particles dry quickly, making them inhospitable for Ebola viruses. They would also expose virus to UV light, which destroys them. Furthermore, since the virus is fairly large, it is questionable whether such small particles could contain enough virus to cause an infection.

The laboratory aerosolization experiments do NOT represent a natural transmission of virus. In those, the virus was atomized directly into animals' faces, in a manner that is not analogous to a biological process at all.

For Ebola to become airborne, it would have to change the cells it infects. It has no reason to do this--it transmits well enough the way it is. Plus, according to top virologists, no virus has ever changed its mode of transmission.

97 posted on 10/13/2014 5:29:17 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson