Suggesting Ebola will become airborne is 'irrespon

Suggesting Ebola will become airborne is 'irresponsible', say experts

UN's Anthony Banbury criticised as irresponsible and spreading panic for suggesting that Ebola could become airborne when no other virus has changed in this way


The UN's chief of Ebola mission Anthony Banbury said Ebola could become airborne in a 'nightmare scenario' but leading scientists have slammed his remarks saying this has never happened and suggesting it is 'irresponsible'.


Mr Banbury was speaking exclusively to the Telegraph as predictions were made that Ebola could have infected 1.4m people by January.


He said the longer the virus is in humans the greater the chance it could mutate. He said the virus being spread through the air was a 'nightmare scenario' but that it 'could not be ruled out'.


However leading British scientists have rounded on him saying his comments are a distraction and accused him of spreading panic.


Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, said: "To suggest that Ebola could become airborne is completely irresponsible.


"The way the virus is spreading is consistent with what we've seen in all previous 25 outbreaks, only transmitting through blood and bodily secretions. There is no precedent for a virus changing its mode of transmission so drastically.

"Other viruses such as HIV – which transmit in the same way, have passed through millions of humans, and are known to mutate more than Ebola – have not become airborne. Making such claims is an unwelcome distraction from the urgent need to scale up the international response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in West Africa."

Dr Ben Neuman, Lecturer in Virology at University of Reading, said: “Ebola is found in the bloodstream, which is part of what makes it so difficult to transmit compared to other viruses. To become airborne, Ebola would need to fundamentally change the way it grows. That is very unlikely in my opinion.

“Evolution can be unpredictable, but there is no good reason to expect that Ebola will become more dangerous with time. Severe diseases like Ebola often happen when a virus clashes with a brand new host for which it is poorly adapted. Recent experience with H1N1 swine flu shows that viruses are likely to mellow as they adapt to their new hosts.

“There is no evidence that Ebola can spread via the air in the real world. Ebola can only be transmitted through the air under carefully controlled lab conditions. One clue that emphasises how different Ebola is from flu is how slow the virus is spreading. Compared to this Ebola outbreak, the H1N1 swine flu had already spread to an estimated 10,000 times as many people in its first ten months.”

Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, added that a sense of proportion should be kept when discussing Ebola.

“The chances of Ebola becoming airborne are extremely small. I am not aware of any viral infection changing its mode of transmission. It’s important we retain a sense of proportion and not exaggerate the risks for it changing and becoming airborne," he told the Telegraph. "There is already enough fear and panic surrounding this epidemic.

"Of more concern is that the virus could become endemic in Western Africa, so unlike big outbreaks like this we could have smaller numbers of cases but circulating continuously. This is where we need to focus our efforts and attention – on trying to stop this outbreak before it establishes itself in Western African countries.”

Mr Banbury, who has served in the UN since 1988, said that the epidemic was the worst disaster he had ever witnessed.

“We have never seen anything like it. In a career working in these kinds of situations, wars, natural disasters – I have never seen anything as serious or dangerous or high risk as this one. I’ve heard other people saying this as well, senior figures who are not being alarmist. Behind closed doors, they are saying they have never seen anything as bad,” he said.

He is leading a mission to Africa with the aim of getting the outbreak under control within 90 days.

He added: “There is a limited window of opportunity. We need to hit it and we need to hit it hard. We haven’t done that but we are doing it now.

"Certainly we are late but the expectation is that we are not too late. We are going to have a very big, fast effort … I have never seen the UN move at this speed or with such co-ordination. We are seeing the kind of response we need, but yes, it’s a bit late.”

The latest figures from the World Health Organisation show that as of last week there 7178 cases, with 3,338 deaths. Countries affected are Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ebola/11138196/Suggesting-Ebola-will-become-airborne-is-irresponsible-say-experts.html

I am so tired of one 'camp' slamming the other in this debate.

Why is the list of countries infected not including the USA?

Look, if you were to pile several Ebola mortalities on some dynamite & blow it off then, yes, the Ebola would become airborne, for a short time.