CDC Removed Info On Coughing And Sneezing From Ebola Q&A

WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly removed some Ebola information from its website. The changes follow claims from news outlets and conservative blogs that the agency hasn't been forthcoming about how the virus spreads, but it was not clear on Thursday afternoon whether the removal was related to the reports.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that the agency "admitted" Ebola can be contracted through casual contact with a doorknob, seemingly contrary to the CDC's insistence that Ebola is only transmissible through direct contact with bodily fluids from a person sick with the disease. The Post cited a page on the CDC's website that said Ebola spreads through droplets that can travel short distances when a sick person coughs or sneezes.

Meryl Nass, an internal medicine physician in Ellsworth, Maine, first highlighted the page on her own blog over the weekend.

The page was a PDF document that explained the difference between infections spread through the air or by droplets. The PDF had been taken down as of Thursday afternoon, with this message in its place: "The What’s the difference between infections spread through air or by droplets? Fact sheet is being updated and is currently unavailable. Please visit cdc.gov/Ebola for up-to-date information on Ebola."

An earlier version of the page is still available in Google's cache. It said that while Ebola is not "airborne" like chickenpox or tuberculosis, it can travel a few feet in the air inside droplets emitted when someone coughs or sneezes.

"A person might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has germs on it and then touching their mouth or nose," the document said.

The CDC has also changed an Ebola Q&A, deleting the below question about coughing and sneezing (which are not typical Ebola symptoms):

Can Ebola spread by coughing? By sneezing?

Unlike respiratory illnesses like measles or chickenpox, which can be transmitted by virus particles that remain suspended in the air after an infected person coughs or sneezes, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of a person who has symptoms of Ebola disease. Although coughing and sneezing are not common symptoms of Ebola, if a symptomatic patient with Ebola coughs or sneezes on someone, and saliva or mucus come into contact with that person’s eyes, nose or mouth, these fluids may transmit the disease.

The version of the Q&A still online notes that Ebola can survive on doorknobs for several hours. The removed question is available in Google's cache from Oct. 29.

What's strange about removing the coughing-and-sneezing question is that it has been reposted all over the internet, including at news outlets like the Washington Post in early October, on state public health agency websites, and on blogs like Democratic Underground and Daily Kos.

A CDC official said the agency is continually updating its website. "This particular Q&A is being updated to ensure people understand that Ebola is not an airborne virus like the flu and will be reposted soon," the official said in an email.

Asked about the possibility of Ebola becoming airborne at an Oct. 7 press conference, CDC Director Tom Frieden said Ebola hasn't spread that way before and is unlikely to mutate into an airborne form.

"Ebola spreads by direct contact with someone who is sick or with the body fluids of someone who is sick or died from it," Frieden said. "We do not see airborne transmission in the outbreak in Africa. We don’t see it elsewhere in what we’ve seen so far."

UPDATE: 10/31/14, 7:41 a.m. -- The CDC has added a new answer about coughing and sneezing to its Ebola Q&A. The new answer emphasizes that the virus doesn't spread that way:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/30/cdc-ebola_n_6078072.html

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.”

Dr. Rossi Hassad, a professor of epidemiology at Mercy College, said droplets could remain active for up to a day.

“A shorter duration for dry surfaces like a table or doorknob, and longer durations in a moist, damp environment,” Hassad said.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/cdc-admits-droplets-from-a-sneeze-could-spread-ebola/&ei=DEVSVOfHComcnQeB04GoAg&wsc=ib

pheasant wrote: This story is rather deep. It just goes to show you how much political pressure there is to curb, or shape the public information. It is also an example, right before our eyes, of government manipulation of facts, and the message.....really scary stuff.

Yeah.

.......

OUTBREAK!
WHO URGES SNEEZE PROTECTION WHILE CDC RETREATS
U.S. agency removes warning of airborne Ebola transmission
Published: 4 hours ago

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and President Obama
NEW YORK – While the Centers for Disease Control has removed from its website a warning that Ebola can be spread through sneezing, the World Health Organization has just issued new guidelines for health workers that specify protective equipment should be worn to protect the mouth, nose and eyes from contaminated droplets and fluids.

The WHO guidelines are based on a review of care of Ebola patients, the U.N. agency said.

Meanwhile, Friday, the CDC website removed a “Fact Sheet” posted Thursday that stirred controversy by admitting after weeks of apparent denial that Ebola can be spread by coughing and sneezing.

The WHO said the Guidelines Development Group it convened included participation of a wide range of experts from international organizations, including the CDC, Doctors without Borders and the Infection Control Africa Network.

“These guidelines hold an important role in clarifying effective personal protective equipment options that protect the safety of healthcare workers and patients from Ebola virus disease transmission,” says Edward Kelley, WHO director for service delivery and safety.

“Paramount to the guidelines’ effectiveness is the inclusion of mandatory training on the putting on, taking off and decontaminating of PPE, followed by mentoring for all users before engaging in any clinical care.”

The guidance posted by the CDC Thursday, captured by NaturalNews.com, said “droplets of the virus can travel short distances, less than 3 feet [one meter] from person to person.”

It further disclosed that a person “might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has germs on it and then touching their nose or mouth.”

Mike Adams, writing at NaturalNews.com, commented that the fact sheet meant “the CDC is now admitting it lied all along” by denying the Ebola virus could be spread by “indirect transmission routes,” including sneezing and coughing. The CDC, he said, had insisted Ebola can only be spread by “direct contact” with the body or bodily fluids of an Ebola-infected person.

The same CDC fact sheet also acknowledged Ebola can contaminate objects, saying “a person might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has germs on it and then touching their mouth or nose.”

Dr. Rossi Hassard, a professor of epidemiology at Mercy College, was quoted by the New York Post saying droplets of the Ebola virus could remain active on surfaces such as a table or doorknob.

The removal of the fact sheet was merely the most recent in a series of public reversals.

On Tuesday, the CDC issued guidance for health care workers specifying new procedures for Emergency Medical Services when handling Ebola patients in ambulance transfers that admitted “lessons had been learned from the recent experience caring for patients with Ebola in U.S. healthcare settings.”

On Oct. 20, reacting to the two nurses who contracted Ebola in Texas after treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan, the CDC “tightened guidance” for U.S. health care workers, specifying no skin should be exposed and all workers be properly trained and supervised by a monitor as they put on and remove personal protective equipment.

Then, on Thursday, as a result of the developing controversy of nurse Kaci Hickox’s refusal to comply with state-imposed quarantine requirements after retuning to the U.S. from West Africa, the CDC issued new guidance for “active monitoring” of persons with potential exposure to Ebola, including daily phone calls to state health authorities to report their temperatures and possibly even state-imposed travel restrictions

The apparent “learning on the fly” cast suspicion on continued reassurances by CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden that the CDC had all necessary procedures in place, and Ebola would be contained in the United States if health care officials and workers followed CDC recommendations precisely.

Then, when nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson contracted Ebola after treating Duncon, the CDC appeared to blame the nurses, suggesting they became infected because they didn’t follow CDC “safety protocols” for treating Ebola patients.

The assertion that CDC protocols were sufficient was undermined when the CDC issued new guidelines specifying health care workers treating Ebola patients must have every inch of their bodies covered by protective equipment and that trained supervisors were needed to monitor workers as they put on and took off the equipment.

Still today, the CDC continues to hold the line that there is no risk Ebola can be airborne transmitted.

Yet, as reported by WND, the U.S. Army has published a widely used medical management handbook, now in its seventh edition, that warns viral hemorrhagic fever, the category of viruses that includes Ebola, can be an airborne threat in certain circumstances.


Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/2014/10/who-urges-sneeze-protection-while-cdc-retreats/#BckF3UDvvlDcPVEA.99