Ebola...

[Fuggles]

I sure hope ebola doesn't come to Ohio. With all the tropical fruit bats we have that shit will spread like wildfire.

 

[Maximus]

:chuckles:


We need Gour in here. He's our expert on...well, everything. After his time building the Hadron particle collider i'm pretty sure he worked at the CDC for like 6 months. Rumor is he got let go for spreading too many of his own diseases.

 

[Fuggles]

I thought gour was a maths person. I hope I am not the closest thing to an expert in this thread.

Wait, I hope I am so I can tell you guys nonsense and you believe it.

 

[Fuggles]

Ebola can easily mutate and become airborne.

Ebola can use mountain dew baja blast as a reservoir.

Mexicans can carry ebola and be asymptomatic. Typhiod Marias .

 

[gourimoko]

I thought gour was a maths person. I hope I am not the closest thing to an expert in this thread.

Wait, I hope I am so I can tell you guys nonsense and you believe it.

This.

I know jack shit about biology or virology...

I never post in threads that I don't have some knowledge about. I'll be honest, I was quite alarmed by the thought of people being brought into the United States with Ebola and simply put under quarantine in their own home. I find that amazing.

I'm not saying it shouldn't happen... I just lack sufficient information on the subject to form a reasoned opinion.

And as stupid as this may sound, I do have a contingency plan in place should shit get out of control. We have 10 overseas workers returned to the Philippines here who are/were suspected of having been infected. 4 had fevers and gastrointestinal pains. We'll know in a few weeks.

If it ends up here, I'm back to Ohio (not Hawaii), and going into full bug out mode.

 

[gourimoko]

Ebola can easily mutate and become airborne.

Ebola can use mountain dew baja blast as a reservoir.

For example... I have no reason to believe either of these statements are either true or false? They are alarming!

Mexicans can carry ebola and be asymptomatic. Typhiod Marias .

Then I read this, put the gun and ammo down, and take a sigh of relief: "Dammit Fuggles...."

 

[Fuggles]

Home quarantine won't stop ebola. Unlike vampires the threshold of a home won't prevent Ebola from entering. It will turn into a little cloud, squeeze out the infected person's chimney and then go down the chimney of the guys next door.

Like santa except the present is blood leaking from all of your orifices.

 

[gourimoko]

Thoughts?

Could Ebola now be airborne? New research shows lethal virus can be spread from pigs to monkeys without contact

Findings come as scores of Ugandans are isolated in latest outbreak
Untreatable virus causes internal bleeding and multiple organ failure
Previously thought to be transmitted only by direct contact

By Damien Gayle

Published: 08:27 EST, 16 November 2012 | Updated: 08:38 EST, 16 November 2012

33

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Fears are growing that the most lethal form of the Ebola virus can mutate into an airborne pathogen, making the spread of the terrifying disease more difficult to check.

It was previously thought the untreatable virus, which causes massive internal bleeding and multiple organ failure, could only be transmitted through contact with infected blood.

But now Canadian researchers have carried out experiments showing how monkeys can catch the deadly disease from infected pigs without coming into direct contact.
Deadly: The Ebola virus, which causes fever-like symptoms, usually followed by organ failure and unstoppable bleeding, and eventually death

Deadly: The Ebola virus, which causes fever-like symptoms, usually followed by organ failure and unstoppable bleeding, and eventually death. New research shows that it could be transmitted through the air

'Our findings support the hypothesis that airborne transmission may contribute to spread, specifically from pigs to primates, and may need to be considered in assessing transmission from animals to humans in general,' they said.

The findings come as scores of people in Uganda were yesterday isolated to prevent the spread of a new Ebola outbreak that has already killed three in the country.

Ebola cause fatal haemorrhagic fevers in humans and many other species of non-human primates. It was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognized. There is no cure or vaccine for it.

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The illness is 'characterised by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, and stomach pain,' according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

'A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients.'

The virus is known to be transmitted through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

It is often spread during communal funerals where there has been an outbreak when the bereaved come into contact with an Ebola victim.

In some cases, it can trigger organ failure and unstoppable bleeding, killing a previously healthy adult within days. One of the deadliest diseases known, it has killed two-thirds of the roughly 1,850 people who have been diagnosed with it.

Experts say this extreme virulence is its weak spot. The virus can be contained because it kills its victims faster than it can spread to new ones. However, if the disease is now airborne it could make containment more difficult.
Highly contagious: A Medicins Sans Frontieres team prepares to move eight Ebola patients from a government isolation ward to a newly installed MSF ward in Bundibugyo during a 2007 outbreak

Highly contagious: A Medicins Sans Frontieres team prepares to move eight Ebola patients from a government isolation ward to a newly installed MSF ward in Bundibugyo during a 2007 outbreak

Researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg deliberately infected six piglets with the ebola virus and put them in pens where macaque monkeys were housed in wire cages.

Within eight days all four monkeys caught the virus through indirect contact, according to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
THE DEADLY VIRUS WITH NO CURE

Ebola is thought to be introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.

In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found dead or ill in the rainforest.

Once infected individuals return to their communities, Ebola spreads through human-to-human transmission resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people.

Health-care workers have frequently been infected and must wear gloves, masks and goggles while treating patients suffering from Ebola.

The viral haemorrhagic fever Ebola causes is often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.

This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding, and eventually death.

Severe cases require intensive supportive care. No specific treatment or vaccine is yet available for Ebola, although several vaccines are in development.

Dr Gary Kobinger from the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada took part in the study. He told BBC News that they suspect that large droplets of moisture containing the virus were being exhaled with the piglets' breath.

'They can stay in the air, but not long, they don't go far,' he told the broadcaster. 'But they can be absorbed in the airway and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way.'

Further work is needed but the findings are worrying as macaques are close genetic relatives to humans, said the researchers.

Fruit bats are a known 'reservoir' for the Ebola virus, and people have also contracted the disease after handling infected chimps, gorillas, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines.

But this research suggests that wild or domestic pigs could also be a natural host.

The latest outbreak of the disease in Uganda - in a district just 40 miles from the capital Kampala - comes roughly a month after the country declared itself Ebola-free following an earlier outbreak in a remote district of western Uganda.

The latest Ebola outbreak, officials say, is of the Sudan strain of Ebola and not linked to the previous one, of the Congo variety, which killed at least 16 villagers in July and August in the western district of Kibaale.

In addition to the three dead in the latest outbreak, up to 15 are being monitored for signs of the disease, officials said.

Ebola is especially feared in Uganda, where multiple outbreaks have occurred over the years, and news of it can cause patients to flee hospitals to avoid infection.

In 2000, in one of the world's worst Ebola outbreaks, the disease infected 425 Ugandans and killed more than half of them in the country's north. Another outbreak in 2007 killed 37 people in Bundibugyo, a remote district close to the Congolese border.

 

[Fuggles]

Daily Mail is a rag.

 

[Fuggles]

http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2014/08/03/are-we-sure-ebola-isnt-airborne/

 

[Fuggles]

Wait, what am I doing. Everyone ignore that link.

Just read the Daily Mail stuff and drink a refreshing 20 ounce bottle of this.

 

[gourimoko]

Ebola viruses (EBOV) cause often fatal hemorrhagic fever in several species of simian primates including human. While fruit bats are considered natural reservoir, involvement of other species in EBOV transmission is unclear. In 2009, Reston-EBOV was the first EBOV detected in swine with indicated transmission to humans. In-contact transmission of Zaire-EBOV (ZEBOV) between pigs was demonstrated experimentally. Here we show ZEBOV transmission from pigs to cynomolgus macaques without direct contact. Interestingly, transmission between macaques in similar housing conditions was never observed. Piglets inoculated oro-nasally with ZEBOV were transferred to the room housing macaques in an open inaccessible cage system. All macaques became infected. Infectious virus was detected in oro-nasal swabs of piglets, and in blood, swabs, and tissues of macaques. This is the first report of experimental interspecies virus transmission, with the macaques also used as a human surrogate. Our finding may influence prevention and control measures during EBOV outbreaks.

http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html

...err... so, it can be transmitted without coming into direct contact?

 

[gourimoko]

Daily Mail is a rag.

I posted the Nature report and the link to the scientific study directly. And I agree, Daily Mail is garbage.

Curious for thoughts though.

 

[Fuggles]

Oh that link is much better. It is going to take me a bit to go over all of it.

 

[gourimoko]

http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2014/08/03/are-we-sure-ebola-isnt-airborne/

So Fuggles, I just read this link, and I agree the study does point out that airborne transmission between primates has not been observed.

The present study provides evidence that infected pigs can efficiently transmit ZEBOV to NHPs in conditions resembling farm setting. Our findings support the hypothesis that airborne transmission may contribute to ZEBOV spread, specifically from pigs to primates, and may need to be considered in assessing transmission from animals to humans in general. The present experimental findings would explain REBOV seropositivity of pig farmers in Philippines2, 3 that were not involved in slaughtering or had no known contact with contaminated pig tissues. The results of this study also raise a possibility that wild or domestic pigs may be a natural (non-reservoir) host for EBOV participating in the EBOV transmission to other species in sub-Saharan Africa.

My concern is that if airborne transmission is indeed possible, and that the variance is based on aerosol droplet size between species, because apparently the virus can infect the lungs, then since humans have larger lungs than the primates in the study perhaps we would be closer to that threshold permitting airborne transmission? As in our cough droplets might be large enough, similar to pigs.

Also, I don't understand how the upwind primates got sick from small droplets... Do we have size comparisons between human cough droplets and that of the pigs being tested? Is there a large difference from our largest droplets to the pigs smallest?