CDC admits droplets from a sneeze could spread Ebola

NY Post ^ | October 29, 2014 | By Bob Fredericks

[dead]

Ebola is a lot easier to catch than health officials have admitted — and can be contracted by contact with a doorknob contaminated by a sneeze from an infected person an hour or more before, experts told The Post Tuesday.

“If you are sniffling and sneezing, you produce microorganisms that can get on stuff in a room. If people touch them, they could be” infected, said Dr. Meryl Nass, of the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington, DC.

Nass pointed to a poster the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly released on its Web site saying the deadly virus can be spread through “droplets.”

“Droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose or mouth of another person,” the poster states.

Nass slammed the contradiction.

“The CDC said it doesn’t spread at all by air, then Friday they came out with this poster,” she said. “They admit that these particles or droplets may land on objects such as doorknobs and that Ebola can be transmitted that way.”

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Probably more than billions..A billion of them can live just in a tiny centimeter of blood, but the thing is like I was saying in another post, they aren’t 100% positive just exactly how contagious it is because they never really tested it, I mean who is going to volunteer in a lab setting to catch an incurable virus that can dissolve your insides in 3 weeks? But what they do know is it can live outside the body for 6 days in ideal conditions which means it certainly can survive for a few hours on a doorknob. You touch a doorknob then put your fingers to your nose or mouth and poof you got it or someone sneezes close to you and poof you got it. The radical Muslim and enemy of the United States in the oval office put there by enemies of the United States called the Democrat party seems to be demanding that his minions spread this myth than Ebola is like AIDs and that you can only catch it from the exchange of bodily fluids which is absolute bullsh*t. Obviously the radical Muslim and enemy of the United States that Congress refuses to remove from office wants this crap to spread which is why he is now making plans to import foreigners infected with it. Why? Because that’s what enemies of the United States do.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/27/Exclusive-Obama-Plans-to-Import-Ebola-infected-Foreigners-from-Other-Countries

[Gay State Conservative]

Sneeze...doorknob...rubbing of the eyes is one of the classic ways the common cold is transmitted.

[Don Corleone]

How about comfy chairs? Bananas? Pointed sticks?

[Pollster1]

Good news: sneezing is not a symptom of Ebola.

Bad news: Sneezing is a symptom of the flu and a cold. It’s possible to have Ebola and another virus at the same time.

Good news: Ebola virus density is highest in the blood, moderate in mucus, and quite low in sweat.

Bad news: The infectious dose of Ebola virus is 1-5 viruses, so even low-risk exposure can be deadly.

Good news: The CDC is finally telling partial truths about Ebola.

Bad news: We still have six days before the election in which Obama will work hard to keep the truth hidden.

Good news: Quarantine and closing the borders will still work, if we so choose, to keep the number of infected in our country very low.

Bad news: Obama cares far more about open borders and bringing in undocumented democrats than he cares about a few hundred or even a few thousand dead Americans.

[wrench]

“Go grocery shopping > push a cart > touch your face > catch a cold.

If Ebola works like that, oh dear.”

Or ride an airplane, Hit the flight attendant call button (or air vent, or fold down tray, or...), rub your eye. You just infected yourself.

[firebrand]

Eventually we will be too weakened to fight back.

[jonrick46]

Most of the lack of caution concerns the behavior of the Ebola host. They are thinking that Ebola is infectious when the host is peaking from fever. When the host is most infectious, he is too sick to be out in public. Those who they do infect are those who try to take care of them as they puke everywhere. At that time, I believe that the aerosol action of a toilet as it flushes vomit and diarrhea would contaminate surfaces with infectious Ebola. How long those surfaces would be infectious would be a matter of concern.

[dead]

I was being facetious about ebola being heavier than the flu.

[caligatrux]

From the CDC: How Flu Spreads – People with flu can spread it to others up to about 6 feet away. Most experts think that flu viruses are spread mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. Less often, a person might also get flu by touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth or nose.

How Ebola Spreads – (Ebola) droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose, or mouth of another person. Droplets travel short distances, less than 3 feet (1 meter) from one person to another. A person might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has germs on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

I think its pretty clear that ebola is harder to get than the flu, but not quite as "nearly impossible" to get as the Oministration is acting.

It's also pretty clear that the CDC, while it probably has plenty of very competent and knowledgable doctors and scientists, is being run by political hacks and bumbling politicos.

[The Great RJ]

What about all the diarrhea that Ebola patients expel...that is highly contaminated and could infect anyone coming in contact with it even days later.

[rlmorel]

This whole conversation is stupid, in my opinion, for the CBC to even grudgingly admit it can be spread by coughing.

We know the Ebola virus can survive a fairly long period of time outside the body.

We know that it is transmitted via open wounds or mucous membrane contact.

One of the most common of human behaviors is picking of the nose, which brings into play the human fingers which may pick up the virus from the back of a contaminated bus seat or a doorknob, and combines that with the mucous membranes of the nose, which may be penetrated to the point of bleeding, never mind simple contact and transmission.

While Ebola is not considered to be extremely spreadable compared to some other diseases since it has a R0 (r naught) value of 1-2, which means each infected person is expected to infect 1-2 people (as compared to something like flu, which has a R0 value of around 3, or measles which has an R0 value of 15, meaning each infected person with measles is expected to infect 15 people) that does not mean other methods of infecting surfaces should be discounted, including bloody phlegm in a cough or sneeze, or simple contamination by an infected person picking their own nose and grabbing a door handle.

This is insane, I don't know why the CDC and the government continue to insist there is no reason to quarantine, and no reason to block travel from infected locations.

Insane. We are playing with fire.

[rlmorel]

See my post at #31...

[Diogenesis]

The time of spread is NOT 21 days, and Obola knows it.

[FamiliarFace]

I have bad allergies, and my symptoms range from itching, runny nose, watery eyes, coughing, to sneezing. When I say sneezing, it’s not a little dainty kerchoo. I sneeze loudly and “violently”. My sneezes must range at least 6’ and I would think maybe some of it could reach 3 times that distance. So if there is anyone else in the world like me, with allergies, and happens to be infected with Ebola, well, let’s just say it would be a good thing for anyone around me if I never am infected. Then again, I know I would self-quarantine.

[I want the USA back]

This has been obvious to me from the start. Our highly-paid professionals refused to admit the truth.

[Yaelle]

The actual flu is a good comparison for Ebola in the sense that people with the real influenza don’t tend to sneeze from it, just as Ebola doesn’t cause sneezes. Neither disease really hits the nose the way a cold (rhinovirus) does. However, of course, if you examined the sneeze under a scope, you’d find either virus in there.

THE TRUTH ABOUT EBOLA THAT NO ONE CAN DISAGREE WITH: once you are infected with the virus, you can start shedding it. Onto whatever you wear or touch or sneeze or cough, etc. NO ONE KNOWS HOW EARLY YOU CAN START SHEDDING IT. The amount of virus shedded increases almost exponentially as you grow sicker. So someone who is “asymptomatic” (a stupid word because 24 hours before he feels sick, he might surely be sick - maybe a fatigue that he attributes to a late night) is still giving off virus, but hopefully such a small amount that most healthy people wouldn’t be affected by.

It’s a question of averages. Nevertheless, I’m still baffled that Duncan’s family didn’t get it when he was sick as a dog in that apartment.

[Clean_Sweep]

Oh yes you are so right. Every breath contains thousands of micro droplets 1-4 microns in size that can travel long distances.

[caligatrux]

Do you know what time period that R0 value for ebola is set as of? In other words, clearly ebola is more contagious as symptoms increase and persist. Is the R0 value of 1-2 through the entire time the person is contagious, or is that as of when the person is most contagious?

To me, that is important to understand. None of the people living in the apartment with Thomas Duncan are infected (at least, as far as we know), but the 2 nurses at the hospital near his end stages did get infected.

The people trying to downplay the contagiousness focus on the fact that ebola is alleged not contagious when you are asymptomatic, and less contagious when you are only beginning to show symptoms.

Some alarmists keep bringing up mutation and say the disease could mutate to become more contagious. Putting on my alarmist hat, my concern would be a mutation whereby the disease becomes more contagiousness sooner and more quickly. My understanding is that sort of "mutation" is less a sudden, uncaused strengthening of the disease (a leap from R0 1-2 to R0 3 or 4, if you will), but sort of the "natural" progression of a virus in its development.

Another concern is the fact that different people are affected by viruses in different ways. Two people can catch the same strain of a flu virus and suffer from different levels of severity of symptoms. Thus, it is possible for someone who is seemingly asymptomatic (i.e., having only a low-grade fever and maybe a runny nose) and be at a high level of contagiousness than another person who is highly feverish, vomiting, etc.

[Rockitz]

I was one of the first on FR to make the point about transmission by aerosols. This is more confirmation.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3212786/posts?page=23#23

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3214537/posts

[Conscience of a Conservative]

Go grocery shopping > push a cart > touch your face > catch a cold.

If Ebola works like that, oh dear.

If Ebola worked like that, the infection rate in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea would be much, much, much higher.