Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
Air Borne Transmission of EBOLA |
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Satori
Valued Member Joined: June 03 2013 Status: Offline Points: 28655 |
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Posted: February 19 2015 at 8:32am |
Limited airborne transmission of Ebola is ‘very likely,’ new study says |
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CRS, DrPH
Expert Level Adviser Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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Nah, what they are talking about is droplet transmission. True micro aerosol/droplet nuclei transmission of Ebola (as with measles, smallpox etc.) doesn't happen and likely won't. Same for HIV, rabies etc. |
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CRS, DrPH
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1NiceGuy
V.I.P. Member Joined: October 14 2008 Location: Nevada Status: Offline Points: 163 |
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Why can't ebola become as virulent as measles? The measles viron varies in diameter between 300nm and 1000nm, ebola is between 800nm and 1000nm. Any particle less than 50 micron in size can stay airborne indefinitely. Viral hemorrhagic fevers have an infectious dose of 1 - 10 organisms by aerosol in non-human primates.
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"Chance favors the prepared mind."
Louis Pasteur -- Louis Pasteur |
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CRS, DrPH
Expert Level Adviser Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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Most viruses do not spread via respiratory means. It depends upon the virion geometry, envelope, size etc. as well as the normal infection pathway. Ebola is not primarily a respiratory infection, unlike influenza etc., so any respiratory transmission is incidental = droplet transmission vs. droplet nuclei. I've written extensively about it on the other forum, Ebola info. |
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CRS, DrPH
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carbon20
Moderator Joined: April 08 2006 Location: West Australia Status: Offline Points: 65816 |
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a virus by its very nature can evolve so to say never is really not good advise,
all that matters is one day a virus will cause a mass depopulation of this wonderful world we all live on, i personally think this is not a bad thing, we the humans are killing this world, you may disagree but i dont care... i just hope that you and yours survive just as i hope me and mine survive but just think 250 years ago there was not a car on the road a plane in the sky and the population of this world was 2 billion+ no bathroom tissue...no soap ...no plastic etc etc we are now pushing 8 billion+ cars,planes,boats ,bathroom tissue , soap,rubber car tyres, plastic,blasting mountains away for mining, millions of gallons of waste toilet water into oceans, ect etc just think about it........ we very lucky to be here at this time just going to get worse...... |
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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖
Marcus Aurelius |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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Yes, it is true that viruses mutate, ebola included. But, to become airborne would be a very long chain of mutations for ebola. It is the wrong shape, it has the wrong protein structure, it uses the wrong infection pathway and it would have to trade a huge proportion of its infectivity to become airborne. Not a good trade off from the viral viewpoint.
You are right, this is not impossible and it does use the droplet infection route from time to time as well. To say that ebola mutating to be airborne is unlikely, is something of an understatement though. I would be less surprised to see a breed of domestic dog evolve wings and learn to ride the updrafts over the Rockies hunting the eagles that "used" to rule the roost. Once again remotely possible, but not exactly likely. 'Lots more really likely things to worry about there.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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CRS, DrPH
Expert Level Adviser Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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For Ebola to mutate to become a true respiratory virus (spread by airborne route), it would have to change its morphology significantly from its present form. Ebola, Marburg and other hemorrhagic viruses are called "filoviruses" for a reason - they are basically filament-shaped. See the graphic.
This morphology does not lend itself to longterm survival outside of a host, or encapsulation in body secretions to form droplet nuclei that can drift and remain airborne for hours (like measles). If Ebola virus were to morph into a different shape, it would likely lose many of its infective properties that make it such a threat. Ebola propagates through the body rapidly due to its filamentous structure and surface binding proteins. |
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CRS, DrPH
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jacksdad
Executive Admin Joined: September 08 2007 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 47251 |
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Deja vu...
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary. |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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I think there is an echo in here.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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carbon20
Moderator Joined: April 08 2006 Location: West Australia Status: Offline Points: 65816 |
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i put my money on a flu virus that will come out of left field,
Ebola if not airbourne never, just keep watching with interest!!!!!!! yep Deja vu.....lol
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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖
Marcus Aurelius |
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1NiceGuy
V.I.P. Member Joined: October 14 2008 Location: Nevada Status: Offline Points: 163 |
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Not trying to beat a topic but what about a bacteriophage spread through the nasal route. It has been noted that MRSA can live in nasal passages and can be stimulated through horizontal gene transfer with influenza to produce an active biofilm.
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"Chance favors the prepared mind."
Louis Pasteur -- Louis Pasteur |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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I'm sorry, NiceGuy, but I do not quite know what you mean. Are you suggesting that ebola could be a bacteriophage, or that it could be managed/cured/treated with one?
In answer to senario one: Ebola has evolved to target mammals as its host family. It only targets specific species within that group. It might theoretically be able to branch out to another family, or genus within the mammal family, but that is unlikely. To cross the barriers into infecting the members of another kingdom of life (such as bacteria) would be impossible. In answer to senario two: It would be theoritically possible to bio-engineer a bacteria which ate ebola virius particles, but that would be quite a task and manufacturing a vaccine is an easier task for the scientists. No such natural bacterium is known to science. If you actually mean could ebola ride a bacterial infection to enter a body by the naso-pharangeal route. Yes that could happen (at least in theory) if the bacterial infection had done enough damage already to have stripped away the mucus producing layers of cells. It would have to be a flesh-eating bacteria, like MRSA to accomplish this. This would require a co-infection (where the flesh eater got there first) and would possibly alert the immune system of the host earlier to the second infection with ebola, resulting in an improved prognosis. This would be both highly unlikely and would not classify as airborne anyway. I think you can stop worrying about that one.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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