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When news broke that the Ebola virus had resurfaced in Uganda, investigators in Canada were making headlines of their own with research indicating the deadly virus may spread between species, through the air.
The team, comprised of researchers from the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, the University of Manitoba, and the Public Health Agency of Canada, observed transmission of Ebola from pigs to monkeys. They first inoculated a number of piglets with the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus. Ebola-Zaire is the deadliest strain, with mortality rates up to 90 percent. The piglets were then placed in a room with four cynomolgus macaques, a species of monkey commonly used in laboratories. The animals were separated by wire cages to prevent direct contact between the species.
Within a few days, the inoculated piglets showed clinical signs of infection indicative of Ebola infection. In pigs, Ebola generally causes respiratory illness and increased temperature. Nine days after infection, all piglets appeared to have recovered from the disease.
Within eight days of exposure, two of the four monkeys showed signs of Ebola infection. Four days later, the remaining two monkeys were sick too. It is possible that the first two monkeys infected the other two, but transmission between non-human primates has never before been observed in a lab setting.
While the study provided evidence that transmission of Ebola between species is possible, researchers still cannot say for certain how that transmission actually occurred. There are three likely candidates for the route of transmission: airborne, droplet, or fomites.
Airborne and droplet transmission
Within eight days of exposure, two of the four monkeys showed signs of Ebola infection. Four days later, the remaining two monkeys were sick too. It is possible that the first two monkeys infected the other two, but transmission between non-human primates has never before been observed in a lab setting.
RESTON, Va. (AP) — It had all the makings of a public-health horror story: an outbreak of a wildly deadly virus on the doorstep of the nation's capital, with dozens of lab monkeys dead, multiple people testing positive, and no precedent in this country on how to contain it.
Americans' introduction to the Ebola virus came 25 years ago in an office park near Washington Dulles International Airport, a covert crisis that captivated the public only years later when it formed the basis of a bestselling book.
Initially thought to be the same hyper-deadly strain as the current Ebola outbreak that has killed hundreds in Africa, the previously unknown Reston variant turned out to be nonlethal to humans. But the story of what might have been illustrates how far U.S. scientists have come in their understanding of a virus whose very name strikes fear, even in a country where no one has fatally contracted it.
In the fall of 1989, dozens of macaques imported from the Philippines suddenly died at Hazelton Research Products' primate quarantine unit in Reston, where animals were kept and later sold for lab testing. Company officials contacted the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md. — Jaax's unit — concerned they might be dealing with an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever among the monkeys.
Initial testing revealed something much worse: Ebola, specifically the Zaire strain, which had a 90 percent fatality rate in humans. Four workers at the quarantine facility tested positive for exposure to the virus.
Amazingly, they never even got sick.
Researchers eventually realized they were dealing with a different strain, one now known as Ebola-Reston. Though its appearance under a microscope is similar to the Zaire strain, Ebola-Reston is the only one of the five forms of Ebola not harmful to humans.
originally posted by: mrsdudara
I can't help but wonder the what ifs. In the areas of Africa where this has hit hard, people have been noted to be afraid of Dr's and avoid them at all costs because Ebola has a history of spreading from the Dr.s and medical areas.
We have not had that worry here except for staph infections/MRSA. If this does spread, we will have people flooding hospitals with every runny nose and fever exposing people whose immune system is already taxed with the flu and might not have Ebola.
We are going to have quite a mess.
Do they expect those who have been exposed to not go to work for 21 days? Do they expect kids not to go to school? (though I will pull mine and homeschool if it comes here).
This will be interesting.
originally posted by: nugget1
took her by taxi to a hospital with Mr. Duncan’s help on Sept. 15
she died hours later, around 3 a.m.
So, Mr. Duncan knew he had been exposed and chose to join his GF in America......
I don't think I would have made that choice.
We're supposed to have faith that the CDC is well prepared and on top of this, but it took 2 days to decontaminate the ambulance that was used?
Asking people to stay home because they have been exposed isn't very comforting.
We're told this disease keeps mutating, so how long before it mutates to an airborne variety? And, will they even tell us if it does?
I think Big Pharma, the healthcare industry and a lot of stockholders will be buying new yachts soon......
originally posted by: kosmicjack
CNN reporting that Duncan's girlfriend claims that CDC has not provided any instructions or aided in decontaminating the apartment where Duncan was staying.
originally posted by: texasgirl
Shame on the CDC, Red Cross and other organizations who are supposed to be helping her.
originally posted by: kosmicjack
originally posted by: texasgirl
Shame on the CDC, Red Cross and other organizations who are supposed to be helping her.
It's a joke - and yet we are supposed to trust them!?
Doctor dons Ebola protection suit to protest CDC