Ebola Airborne? Spreads From Pigs to Monkeys Without Contact

reply to post by soficrow


This was already known back in the 90s that it could go airborne. In the book The Hot Zone, the author stated that Ebola Reston had infected the entire Reston research lab by going into the air ducts in the building.USAMRID studied it and culled (killed) almost 500 monkeys that were infected this way.It had also infected some of the HUMANS as well during this outbreak. Though a close call,it ended up the Reston would not harm humans.Things could have been so different its scarey.

In the Reston case monkeys that had had NO contact with other monkeys in other rooms were infected and dying.And how did an African disease end up in Philippine monkeys anyway?The only answer that was plausible was that due to illegal hunting,Rhinos,Water Buffalo and large Cats were being shipped to the Philippines for hunters to kill,and some how the virus with them. Had it mutated it would have been a disaster for Washington DC since that is where the outbreak occurred.It would have species jumped into the monkey house workers and they in turn would have infected their loved ones etc and so on.

soficrow
reply to post by Darkblade71

 

Uh huh. Outbreak was based on the true story of the first Ebola outbreak.

Funny how life and art can intersect.

yep, 'The Hot Zone' by Richard Preston.

Great read...

reply to post by WhiteAlice




If this disease is in Canada I feel one poster is correct in saying we may have to resort to being "super clean" germaphobic for awhile to protect against its spread. Pure alcohol would kill virus but it can make matters worse. Humans did ok without these better killers of the unseen so I personally think the trade off for using them isn't worth it for the most part. Germs made my immune system super strong as a kid. Antibacterial soaps and a course of antibiotics have weakened it in the last year (stopped using that stuff but it takes time to build the good germs back up).
We know regular soap won't kill a virus so what to do if this starts to spread. I definitely don't want to be using super germ killers but it's a tough call with the incubation period of this disease.

reply to post by Dimithae


The airborne RESTON virus in "The Hot Zone" is not the (Zaire) Ebola virus, which was not known to be airborne. There's always the concern that a deadly virus can go airborne but in this case, for the Zaire Ebola Virus, it was not "already known in the 90's." [Ed. to add: The Hot Zone was published in 1994; airborne experiments infecting monkeys with Ebola were published 1995. Maybe Preston had the inside track.]

Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus.

The potential of aerogenic infection by Ebola virus was established by using a head-only exposure aerosol system. Virus-containing droplets of 0.8-1.2 microns were generated and administered into the respiratory tract of rhesus monkeys via inhalation. Inhalation of viral doses as low as 400 plaque-forming units of virus caused a rapidly fatal disease in 4-5 days. The illness was clinically identical to that reported for parenteral virus inoculation, except for the occurrence of subcutaneous and venipuncture site bleeding and serosanguineous nasal discharge. Immunocytochemistry revealed cell-associated Ebola virus antigens present in airway epithelium, alveolar pneumocytes, and macrophages in the lung and pulmonary lymph nodes; extracellular antigen was present on mucosal surfaces of the nose, oropharynx and airways. Aggregates of characteristic filamentous virus were present within type I pneumocytes, macrophages, and air spaces of the lung by electron microscopy. Demonstration of fatal aerosol transmission of this virus in monkeys reinforces the importance of taking appropriate precautions to prevent its potential aerosol transmission to humans.
PMID: 7547435

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Thanks for the Wiki quickpicks. Didn't know about the 1995 experiments.

No matter the strain though its yhe scariest bug out there.

It's usually described as one of the scariest - with rabies the worst.

reply to post by Dianec


The sick traveller coming from Africa to Saskatchewan tested negative for Ebola. (Some people may not believe the reports though)

reply to post by Dianec


Regular soap actually can kill viruses. HIV, for instance, is actually a very fragile virus. It doesn't survive long outside of a host and it is instantly killed by regular soap/hand washing. In fact, hand washing with regular soap either a. washes most viruses and bacteria away or b. outright kills viruses. Ironically enough, just rinsing and rubbing one's hands with just water is also effective at getting rid of viruses. Just better to use soap just to be a little extra sure.

Regular soap, bar or liquid, does kill viruses and even the most noxious of ones. As weird as it sounds, using ivory soap and water after potential exposure is supposed to reduce infection chances when used where it counts. So yes, even that bar of Ivory is virucidal.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

reply to post by WhiteAlice


That's what I thought. The antibacterial thing is unnecessary unless one doesn't want to actually take the time to clean with water.

I'm glad to hear from the plaster above that it wasn't confirmed in Canada (just googled it too). They wouldn't lie about that - what would be the motivation.

I don't think this will spread to the United States due to the precautions being taken as it sits now. If no one were paying attention it would but they are taking it seriously (for good reason).

reply to post by Dianec


Yep, soap is cool. The reason why just plain soap is effective is because it basically hydrolizes fats by breaking hydrogen bonds and bacteria tends to have a layer lipids surrounding them. Next time you wash your hands with a bar of soap, you can gleefully imagine bacteria rupturing on contact. You murderer, lol. A fun little experiment to show this effect just requires a glass and pepper. Sprinkle some pepper in the glass and watch it float then dip a soapy finger in and see what happens. My kids swear its magic.

I don't think Ebola is one of the uglies within the US so yeah we should be grateful for that. Hantavirus and Yersina Pestis, yes. Ebola, no.

What were the conditions the monkey/pig experiment was performed under? The atmospheric conditions like the controlled humidity and other things that a lot of labs are kept at may have a lot to do with the success of the experiment. And still, all it proved was that if you inhale a droplet of infectious body fluid, you can get the disease. I thought that was already known to be a possibility also demonstrated under laboratory conditions but also unlikely to occur readily in the real world.

I have a resource to add for everyone. At least, those who haven't seen it before. This is a straight list by table and disease, for current and recent cases on a world wide basis.

Perspective...is the critical word on this resource. Some who have never seen it may tend to get a little anxious by how the world map looks. It ALWAYS looks like that. So, give some time to see what's normal and what isn't.

However, on specific bugs to watch? It's one of the better I know of. Ebola is among them, and it can be singled out for display by the drop down box on the top.

Outbreak Tracking

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Jeez, that's one scary interesting site and zoom-in map. Look at all the bird flu cases in Asia. Thanks for the daymares Wrabbit!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Is it morbid to like that site because I think it's great

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Wow, thanks for the link!

it says 5 new ebola cases in the last 24 hours....yikes.
I also noticed that it is spread out over a few countries,
so it is spreading for sure...

reply to post by Darkblade71


This map shows the geographic spread in Guinea, and the countries adjacent to the districts with confirmed and suspected cases.

reply to post by Darkblade71


For general context, that is one thing to know about what that map and system tracks. You can search by specific illness and it'll show back a few years in some cases. Especially on the more unusual ones. Ebola outbreaks do pop-up regularly. Not "often", as I'd term it by watching, but one of our members in Kenya was among the first to point out to me that it's not that uncommon to see listed.

That being said, some of the recent events seem distinct and different. I'm watching real closely, anyway.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Well, ya know, it would just be everyone's luck to have an outbreak of Ebola at the same time as a Russian invasion and a bunch of really big earthquakes....where is the meteors/comets??


*eyes Yellowstone*

reply to post by Darkblade71

where is the meteors/comets??

Well, that would cover the check box for fire and brimstone.

Ebola really is one of the only threats I know of that will get me packing and leaving populated areas before I have to see casualties in my own community. Altho...with all the medical in this area of Missouri, that's wishful thinking for not seeing it close if it ever did get loose in the wild here. That's a huge if, of course. Thankfully.

If you check the listings though, the US gets the plague, dengue, yellow fever, anthrax and all kinds of other happy things in the more than the media mentions. They actually have a doomy card they don't play. (haven't gotten around to it, probably)

Yep Ebola should thrive in Missouri.................nice climate...wild hogs....take care wabbit take care....

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Liberia just reported its first Ebola case not connected to the Guinea outbreak. The new case is the first that's not attributed to people returning from Guinea - a very "worrying" development that breaks the chain of "direct contact." ...Seven new cases in Liberia bring the total to 14, with 6 deaths since Liberia reported its first case last month.

But authorities still seem to believe this crisis will outbreaks peter out like other Ebola outbreaks have done.