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Top Doctors: Ebola May Become Airborne … And May ALREADY Be Transmissible Via Aerosols
Michael T. Osterholm – director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota – wrote in the New York Times last month:
Viruses like Ebola are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next. The current Ebola virus’s hyper-evolution is unprecedented; there has been more human-to-human transmission in the past four months than most likely occurred in the last 500 to 1,000 years. Each new infection represents trillions of throws of the genetic dice.
If certain mutations occurred, it would mean that just breathing would put one at risk of contracting Ebola. Infections could spread quickly to every part of the globe, as the H1N1 influenza virus did in 2009, after its birth in Mexico.
Why are public officials afraid to discuss this? They don’t want to be accused of screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater — as I’m sure some will accuse me of doing. But the risk is real, and until we consider it, the world will not be prepared to do what is necessary to end the epidemic.
In 2012, a team of Canadian researchers proved that Ebola Zaire, the same virus that is causing the West Africa outbreak, could be transmitted by the respiratory route from pigs to monkeys, both of whose lungs are very similar to those of humans. Richard Preston’s 1994 best seller “The Hot Zone” chronicled a 1989 outbreak of a different strain, Ebola Reston virus, among monkeys at a quarantine station near Washington. The virus was transmitted through breathing, and the outbreak ended only when all the monkeys were euthanized. We must consider that such transmissions could happen between humans, if the virus mutates.
The Guardian reports today:
There is a ‘nightmare’ chance that the Ebola virus could become airborne if the epidemic is not brought under control fast enough, the chief of the UN’s Ebola mission has warned.
Anthony Banbury, the Secretary General’s Special Representative, said that aid workers are racing against time to bring the epidemic under control, in case the Ebola virus mutates and becomes even harder to deal with.
Two Infectious Disease Experts Say Ebola In Its CURRENT Form Is ALREADY Spread By Aerosols
But perhaps most challenging to the mainstream assumption that Ebola can only be spread through physical contact with a person who is showing symptoms of infection is the following explanation by two national experts on infectious disease transmission, both professors in the School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago (footnotes omitted):
We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks. [Aerosols are liquids or small particles suspended in air. An example is sea spray: seawater suspended in air bubbles, created by the force of the surf mixing water with air.]
The important points are that virus-laden bodily fluids may be aerosolized and inhaled while a person is in proximity to an infectious person and that a wide range of particle sizes can be inhaled and deposited throughout the respiratory tract.
***
Being at first skeptical that Ebola virus could be an aerosol-transmissible disease, we are now persuaded by a review of experimental and epidemiologic data that this might be an important feature of disease transmission, particularly in healthcare settings.
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Many body fluids, such as vomit, diarrhea, blood, and saliva, are capable of creating inhalable aerosol particles in the immediate vicinity of an infected person. Cough was identified among some cases in a 1995 outbreak in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and coughs are known to emit viruses in respirable particles. The act of vomiting produces an aerosol and has been implicated in airborne transmission of gastrointestinal viruses. Regarding diarrhea, even when contained by toilets, toilet flushing emits a pathogen-laden aerosol that disperses in the air.
***
There is also some experimental evidence that Ebola and other filoviruses can be transmitted by the aerosol route. Jaax et alreported the unexpected death of two rhesus monkeys housed approximately 3 meters from monkeys infected with Ebola virus, concluding that respiratory or eye exposure to aerosols was the only possible explanation.
Zaire Ebola viruses have also been transmitted in the absence of direct contact among pigsand from pigs to non-human primates, which experienced lung involvement in infection. Persons with no known direct contact with Ebola virus disease patients or their bodily fluids have become infected.
***
Experimental studies have demonstrated that it is possible to infect non-human primates and other mammals with filovirus aerosols. [Ebola is a type of filovirus]
Altogether, these epidemiologic and experimental data offer enough evidence to suggest that Ebola and other filoviruses may be opportunistic with respect to aerosol transmission. That is, other routes of entry may be more important and probable, but, given the right conditions, it is possible that transmission could also occur via aerosols.
In other words, these two infectious disease experts believe that Ebola is already – in its current form – transmissible via aerosols. They therefore urge all doctors and nurses working with Ebola patients to wear respirators.
If they're right, the government's assumptions about and strategies towards Ebola are all wrong. At the very least - as the two experts quoted above urge - all frontline healthcare workers should wear respirators. And it may be necessary to consider travel restrictions until the epidemic is contained.
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But you are making an assumption that these alphabet agencies work for the citizenry and not for the globalist overlords.
You mean the way TPTB did on 9/11? Really GW? We usually get better than that from you.
What makes you ponder the possiblility that this is/will/is desired to contained? mehtinks they wish the spread. and will likely encourage it.
I hate the fact that I see this by the way.
The truth may set you free, but it doesn't make it any easier to sleep at night.
George - my wife, who has a PhD in molecular biology and a MS in epidemiology is practically bald from pulling her hair out listening to these assholes.
In her professional opinion - these clowns are endangering everyone with "feel good" "we're on top of this" "American exceptionalist" bullcrap.
The one thing we can see is how one confirmed case actually requires potentially hundereds of isolation beds. Once this gets into the hundreds/thousands it's going to be next to impossible to contain.
PS Thanks for your tireless efforts.
All that education, and your wife never studied 'Eugenics'.
Not too late, start with the First Commandment of the Georgia Guidestones, and Dr. Pianka:
""A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead."
Honestly, I think that she would tend to agree with the part of his opinion concerning the rest of the biosphere being "better off" with a human populaiton reduction of 90% - I think she would heartily disagree, however, that engineering such a decrease via the intentional release Ebola would be in anyones interest - including the biosphere's (or the bankers, for that matter).
One of the things we've got to come to grips with is that via the widespread proliferation of nuclear power plants, we've created a "Doomsday Device" that would make Dr. Strangelove proud - only difference is this one is tied to the grid. If "civilization" collapses catistrophically and the grid goes down - the reactors melt down and fuck everybody equally.
If this Ebola goes exponential, how soon before the nuke workers refuse to go to work and quit? Not everyone at an NPP knows how to keep the cooling systems going.
Also, cooling power doesn't come from the plant itself, but the public grid. If the grid goes down because workers aren't coming to work, we get the same result.
Would take about two weeks, three at the most, before the water flow stopped and everything starts to heat up, boiling the water off and erupting into nuclear fires, blowing the containment structures sky high. The Japanese and Ukrainians know all about this.
There is a cure. Ask her about 'monoclonal antibodies' and the best sources. It's going to get really ugly, both for the dying and the survivors.
We are training ourselves quickly in what's going on, but a medical professional such as your wife is well ahead of the curve and knows exactly what's coming. I wish both of you, and your family, all the best.
I hate to break this to you, but it's already exponential and has been so for a while - at least in Africa.
(For all the stats/mather nerds out there, a 4th order polynomial function actually fits the demonstrated curve a bit better - more than a 99% fit - which is insancely correlated. Either way, the current situation is not good)
What's the function? Call me curious
y = 2E-05x4 - 0.0047x3 + 0.4234x2 - 8.4018x + 149.46
R² = 0.9967
Thank you very much.
It is about avoiding panic. Calculated casualties perhaps. A risk for sure - especially in a fragile economic environment.
Virtually every release from WHO and CDC has had the same language in it.
Not worth listening to them any more. Rather, I'll be watching the transmission rate here in the US. The MSM is perversely bound to be all over this until they get thier chain yanked.
Yep, this is the problem - that it requires quarantine in isolation or those who MAY have been exposed to stop it. So a relatively small number of actual cases, if nor closely related to each other, can quickly overwhelm the existing system to deal with it.
On a positive note, I have recently seen article that say the virus seems to have been stopped in Nigeria. If true, this is big and very positive news.
Not just quarantine, but quarantine under the strictest of biological safety conditions.
Essentially, the only way to protect the rest of the population is to keep a safe distance of several meters between you and the nearest person.
Aerosols are nasty in that way.
Beyond just the logistics - there is the moral dilemma of quarentining healthy people in with the sick ones if you don't have the resources for true isolation. Then there's the motivation folks will have not to be quarentined in with known sick people.
HIV anti-viral drug Lamivudine tested effective against Ebola in Africa
in several patients of an African doctor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamivudine
forget it George. It's over. Too late.
Any of you know if this rumor has any credibility? Very bad news for Hawaii if true.
http://www.eturbonews.com/51008/ebola-hawaii-not-good-mix-hawaii-travel-...
They need to quarantine west africa and do whatever is needed to wipe this out pronto.
george , travel bans?? come on, with all the data about open borders and this guy flying here from a hot zone and you expect any change in the program? thought you were more pragmatic then that.
the biowar componet of this is obvious. it's just who is behind it, not our own elite I am sure, arn't I?
what we can do: demand resignations at cdc customs tsa hls at the very least..call your congressman now and demand these fools be fired.
Call your congressman.. there's a problem that needs fixing....and it can be solved by blaming someone and then firing them....Sheesh.
See my post below. The Haj either started today or will begin within the next day or so. Muslims from all over the world make the pilgrimage to Mecca. One person infected with Ebola in that crowd could quite literally infect multiple countries. I believe that Saudi Arabia has had at least one case already. The Haj is historically a hub of plague transmission. Why should this time be different?
With so many willing to wear an explosive vest into a crowded market in the middle east, one can imagine that there are untold numbers of individuals (whose relatives have been relegated to the collateral damage column) planning on a visit to the U.S. after a short stop over in west africa. All intelligence personnel have considered this allready (I would assume) and yet the response to the appearance of the most deadly plague seems to center on not disturbing the market. My thoughts keep wandering back to the Georgia guidestones and the mural in the Denver world airport for some strange reason.
Those guidestones crossed my mind too....
Denver - The ugly dude with the sword and gas mask?
Who could' node?
Well, that would solve a few problems. Happy Hadji, all you ex CIA rebels.
Same to the backers of all the 9 / 11 hijackers rom Saudi Arabia.
Then if a bunch travel to visit Washington D.C. , tour the Senate, the House of Representatives , the White House, the FED, more happy endings.
Last, but not least, the tourism junket would not be complete without a trip to New York to visit Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and some other houses of ill repute.
Sunny side up, glass is half full, turn that frown upside down, this is a Martha Stewart " That's a good thing. " moment.
I'm having an acceptable California Sauvignon Blanc with lunch (actually, my second - reading ZH is bad for temperance) - care to join me?
You should be gargling something stronger.
I would guess that blowing a scotch through your nose might help in killing any moisture droplets that got into your nose from an infected Ebola source....
Reapply liberally
Dammit Race, you made me snort my Royal Salute: http://www.therichest.com/luxury/most-expensive/the-10-most-expensive-sc...
OBTW: Jethro, that's a real interesting post about the Hajj. Didn't consider it...
Glad I could accomplish something today.
Carry on
Khee, U2...
Regarding diarrhea, even when contained by toilets, toilet flushing emits a pathogen-laden aerosol that disperses in the air.
Don't go to the toilet. You could be lapping that stuff up with every breath. I could have gone all my life with out knowing about this part.
That's why Mom always taught you to close the lid before flushing.
I always thought she was a bit over-anxious about a water power surge blowing shit on the bathroom walls.
There is no escape. In two years, there will only be survivors and the dead.
Among the survivors, only a handful will have gotten the cure. And they will own the 9 billion hollow points and the means to deliver them.
Even among the survivors, the internal organs will have broken down, and significant hemorrhaging of the brain, without the finest medical care - which will not be available to any but the .001%.
The future is going to be fucked for most survivors.
The Haj and the Silk Road have historically been the mode by which plagues have spread. The Haj started today. One person could literally infect thousands in that venue.
UNITED AIRLINES IS RELEASING THE INFO ON THEIR FLIGHTS THAT PATIENT X TOOK TO AMERICA
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2777375/Were-YOU-flight-America-...
the haj. in saudi arabia. pray to mohammed.
and i will apologize to god tomorrow on yom kippur for sometimes wishing bad on some people. i must atone for ebola.
ebolatonement.
What if.....
Just what if..... the current strain of Ebola was genetically engineered to be particularly lethal to some genetic markers and not so much to others?
That can be done.
What if, with it breaking out in Africa and the Hadj starting...
What if?
You're starting to sound like one of those Zero Hedge guys. Have you been drinking?
Are you familiar with the Muslim Hajj? The largest yearly gathering of mankind on the planet (with beautiful photos):
Muslims gather around holy Kaaba for the start of the Hajj pilgrimage
Muslims flying in from all over the world. You would hope proper border/medical controls would be in place, as the leaders of Saudi Arabia are some very smart people, and surrounded by the smartest advisers oil wealth can buy. You would be wrong:
'Nigeria: Hajj 2014 - Ogun Commences Airlifting of Pilgrims Today'
http://m.allafrica.com/stories/201409082233.html/?maneref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2014-09-09%2Febola-outbreak-doubles-3-weeks-who-warns-conventional-means-control-not-working
and
'Despite Ebola, 70,000 Nigerian Hajis coming'
http://www.zawya.com/mobile/default.cfm/actstory/sidZAWYA20140908035548
(The above link was free last time I went there, but now there's a paywall. I think the headline gets the point across)
70,000 potentially Ebola infected tourists, among 2-3 million international tourists all flying home after the party. It could have been stopped with one phone call.
Nah.
The term is Omnicide -"Omnicide is human extinction as a result of human action. Most commonly it refers to extinction through nuclear warfare or biological warfare,[15][16][17] but it can also apply to extinction through means such as global anthropogenic ecological catastrophe.[18]
Omnicide can be considered a subcategory of genocide.[19] Using the concept in this way, one can argue, for example, that:
“ The arms race is genocidal in intent given the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union are knowingly preparing to destroy each other as viable national and political groups.[20] ”This concept of omnicide attempts to raise issues of human agency and moral responsibility in discussions about large-scale social processes like the nuclear arms race. To describe a human extinction scenario as 'omnicidal' is to claim that, if it were to happen, it would result not just from natural, uncontrollable evolutionary forces, or from some random catastrophe like an asteroid impact, but from deliberate choices made by human beings. In this view, such scenarios are preventable, and people whose choices make them more likely to happen should be held morally accountable."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_extinction#Omnicide
Thousands? There's something like three million pilgrims there living on top of each other for a week or two. At least the pilgrims have been warned about MERSCoV transmission so there is some awareness of prevention. I say the timing of outbreaks is just too damn convenient for all the psychopathic muslim-haters, but what do I know?
Sorry, but if you're a muslim of modest means saving all year for a once-in-a-lifetime hajj, then you are not very likely to announce your flu-like symptoms to anybody a day or two before your flight. How about the potential for twenty or maybe more like a hundred and twenty current asymptomatic pilgrims that start showing symptoms once they get to Saudi Arabia? How about everyone else on the planes whether they're going to Hajj or not. The first symptoms are not severe - you don't go from symptom-free to blood gushing out every orifice of your body in an hour or two. It takes days for the symptoms to get worse and it's diffrent for everybody. Are you a little stiff from the ten-hour flight, or is it ebola? Is your fatigue from jet lag or ebola? How about that headache? Stress from traveling, bad airline food, annoying fellow passengers or ebola?
The Hajj has the potential to spread any communicable disease to tens-of-thousands or even hundreds-of-thousands. Most of them will not start showing symptoms until after they've arrived back in their home countries. And keep in mind that most of those three million pilgrims will be flying back on commercial airlines.
Every scientist, government official and media outlet that ever muttered a word about ebola not being airborne should stand trial for crimes against humanity (if there's anyone left to try them).
I was wrong. Millions. Not thousands. I meant directly, but you are probably more right than me, and I thank you for the correction.
That wasn't directed at correcting your math, Jethro. YOU are probably more right than me - at least I hope so. One, single person with ebola potentially could infect a thousand others as you pointed out - especially with everyone packed together like sardines in Mecca. I'm only bringing up the worse possible scenario - multiple pepole in the infectious stage travelling to Mecca, each one infecting thousands of others, some of whom themselves then make it to the infectious stage and infect others on their journey home.
Saudi Arabia does make some kind of provisions for emergency medical care for the millions of pilgrims, so we can only hope that anyone sick makes it to those facilities quickly and are moved to appropriate infectious care facilities as soon as possible.
.
You need a better travel agent.
May???/
Wake up and smell the apocalypse.
The act of vomiting produces an aerosol and has been implicated in airborne transmission of gastrointestinal viruses.
Remember the guy in Texas was chased outside by his family members screaming, while he was...vomiting all over the place?
But, But, But I thought they said most are O.K. because it is only a liquid transfer that will infect another.
Such as Kissing, (fukn'), or drinking from the same cup. Does this mean they have lied again.
Hmmmm, probably explains the mask and even oxygen bottles handlers use when working on a victim. Dam, they lied again.
The Haj, of course, includes a sizeable representation from Nigeria.
Also, surely our Government wouldn't lie to us.......................;-)