Ebola virus and cash/pocket change....A question worth being asked

Like the title says, should we be a little concerned about the spread of this virus on cash? I mean, think about it. Guy gets sick, goes to buy food, medicine, whatever. Since the early syptoms of ebola are pretty common symptoms, one could not know HOW sick they are, forego medical treatment at first, and could be passing this on every bill they touch. Hand it to the cashier, give the bill to another customer as change, supervisor handles same bill before deposit, bank teller handles bill, customer receives bill, and the whole process starts and repeats again and again. I just thought this is an interesting question as I have heard no one talk about this. It also is not just bills, pocket change as well. That could spread this out of control to an uncontrollable status very quick in my opinion. Thoughts on this ATS?

a reply to: thesmokingman

Its sad but a great reason for "them" to starting going into electronic cash, if that's an intent. Which in this day and age, I would not be surprised if that spins off.

That is a legtimate question.

The people who work in labs have been sent the following:

Instructions for laboratory workers and health care workers:

SOURCES/SPECIMENS: Blood, serum, urine, respiratory and throat secretions, semen, and organs or their homogenates from human or animal hosts Footnote 1 Footnote 2 Footnote 53.
COMMUNICABILITY: Communicable as long as blood, body fluids or organs, contain the virus. Ebolavirus has been isolated from semen 61 to 82 days after the onset of illness, and transmission through semen has occurred 7 weeks after clinical recovery Footnote 1 Footnote 2 Footnote 59 Footnote 60.
Ebolavirus dried onto glass, polymeric silicone rubber, or painted aluminum alloy is able to survive in the dark for several hours under ambient conditions
(between 20 and 250C and 30–40% relative humidity) (amount of virus reduced to 37% after 15.4 hours), but is less stable than some other viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa) Footnote 53. When dried in tissue culture media onto glass and stored at 4 °C, Zaire ebolavirus survived for over 50 days Footnote 61.
PHYSICAL INACTIVATION: Ebola are moderately thermolabile and can be inactivated by heating for 30 minutes to 60 minutes at 60°C, boiling for 5 minutes, or gamma irradiation (1.2 x106 rads to 1.27 x106 rads) combined with 1% glutaraldehyde Footnote 10 Footnote 48 Footnote 50.
www.phac-aspc.gc.ca...


So your question is quite legtimate. From what they are telling labs, the virus can last quite a while on surfaces.
Other sources say 8 hours, but they are telling labs up to 15+ hours in normal conditions. Money is a regular surface.

So based on scientific evidence, I think yes Ebola could be transmitted on money.

Of course, I'd expect this to be swept under the rug as highly unlikely, but the potential is there based on your scenario.

originally posted by: gardCanada
a reply to: thesmokingman

Its sad but a great reason for "them" to starting going into electronic cash, if that's an intent. Which in this day and age, I would not be surprised if that spins off.

Sadly it was one of the first things to cross my mind(the electronic cash angle) when the first positive US case was announced.

a reply to: thesmokingman

Once again I am in support of your OP.

First thing i said to my college student was no more $$$, debit and credit cards only. Even at that, the machines and the way to punch in you info is unsafe.

This is crazy.

a reply to: thesmokingman

Viruses have a real hard time outside of the body.

If viruses were only a fraction as dangerous as some of the things Ive read on ats the last two days then life on this planet would have been wiped out a long time ago.

the worst place to be is probably a TSA screener, rubbing down infected ebola victims, I'd say thats some well deserved karma. You got a point with the money though...

Please add to the existing thread, found here.

www.abovetopsecret.com...