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New York Times: Some May Carry Ebola Without Showing Any Symptoms

George Washington's picture




 

The New York Times reported in 2000:

The Ebola virus, which has caused deaths from high fever and bleeding in African outbreaks, can also infect without producing illness, according to a new finding by African and European scientists.

 

The possibility of asymptomatic infection was only suggested in earlier studies, they said in last week’s issue of The Lancet, a medical journal published in London. Now they said they had documented such infections for the first time. They found that the Ebola virus could persist in the blood of asymptomatic infected individuals for two weeks after they were first exposed to an infected individual. How much longer the virus can persist is unknown.

 

***

 

If people can be carriers without showing symptoms, it means control might be more difficult.

 

“This degree of containment would be virtually impossible if symptom-free carriers posed a significant threat of infection,” Dr. Alan G. Baxter of Newtown, Australia, wrote in an editorial in the same issue of The Lancet.

 

***

 

An immediate effect is to raise the need to reassess health policy about one of the most virulent viruses known and to determine how often healthy carriers transmit it, said the scientific team headed by Dr. E. M. Leroy of Franceville, Gabon.

 

***

 

Dr. Leroy’s team studied 25 individuals who never developed symptoms although they lived with family members and cared for them without using gloves and other precautions in two outbreaks in Gabon in 1996.

 

Using standard virologic techniques, the scientists from Gabon, Germany and France said they could not detect the virus in the blood of the healthy contacts. But Dr. Leroy’s succeeded by using a technique known as polymerase chain reaction to grow the tiny amount of virus present.

Here is the study published in Lancet.  And here is the editor’s comment.

The Lancet study does not warn of an apocalyptic scenario where any casual contact could cause infection. It is more focused on contagion through sex or blood transfusions.

But Western governments and scientists have repeatedly said that Ebola carriers can only infect others if they are showing symptoms.  So they need to adjust their strategies to account for potential contagion from people who aren’t showing any symptoms.

Aerosol Transmission

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 – report that Ebola can be transmitted by aerosols … i.e. fluids mixed with air (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.

 

***

 

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.

We need to understand how Ebola is really spread, and then take appropriate counter-measures.

Ebola Is Mutating

In addition, Ebola is mutating.   The discoverer of the disease (Dr. Peter Piot) said last week:

It is clear that the virus is mutating.

Indeed, top doctors say that - unless contained - it could eventually mutate to become airborne.

And the Washington Post notes that terrorists could use Ebola as a bio-weapon. The longer the outbreak rages, the more likely such a scenario becomes.

We Need a World War 2, Marshall Plan or Moon Landing Level Effort to Stop This

According to American nurses, the U.S. healthcare system is woefully unprepared to handle Ebola. Even the best Ebola tests can give false negatives, meaning that people with Ebola can be released into the community.

We need an effort on the scale of World War 2, the Marshall Plan or the moon shot to contain and eradicate this modern plague.

 

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Wed, 10/08/2014 - 08:44 | 5302507 Mi Naem
Mi Naem's picture

"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." 

Evidently, these folks have never seen crap-throwing primates in the zoo's monkey house. 

And "Jaax"?!?  Who's "et. al.", Offe, Yuri, and Peters

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 13:09 | 5299412 joego1
joego1's picture

Picture this comming out of every hole;

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0080244

I rest my case.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 12:53 | 5299337 Pimp Daddy
Pimp Daddy's picture

This brings back some memories from a few years ago......Oh yeah, the swine flu hoax.....line up and get your vaccines you meddling fools.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:22 | 5299855 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

The only thing you'll find out from reading the NYT is what the government wants you to be distracted about this week. Pravda had a better record of actually carrying realistic information.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 11:46 | 5299044 JRobby
JRobby's picture

Of course. That is why Ebola was chosen.

Will they ground all plane? Fuck NO!

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 10:35 | 5298692 Budd aka Sidewinder
Budd aka Sidewinder's picture

"Looks like the wrong bat met the wrong pig"

-Contagion

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 10:36 | 5298679 Dingleberry
Dingleberry's picture

Of course, an ounce of common sense would tell you that the "experts" cannot be correct in their view of this disease and (far more importantly) its manner of transmission.

The number of new cases and the speed of its spread tell you all you need to know.

 

 

 

 

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 13:51 | 5299677 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Yes. Of course. And whatever filters down to your level from the said "experts" had better be ignored or not even read.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 07:43 | 5298027 Quinvarius
Quinvarius's picture

Aerosol is airborne.  It has always been considered airborne.  It is how every other airborne virus gets spread.  Airborne does not mean it just jumps off you onto other people.  It means you can get it without contact via air transmission.  The CDC is a bunch of fkn idiots following political orders not to trash the economy.  So you are now going to die for the bankers because they cannot admit they bet wrong on a recovery and want to live in denial another day.  Correctly addressing ebola means global commerce will take a big hit.  Bankers don't like that.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 07:29 | 5297998 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

It is a frightening thought that people can be carriers without showing symptoms, it means controlling the spread of the virus will be far more difficult. Americans ignored Ebola while thousands of people died in Africa, now that one person gets sick in America it has become an "Oh My God" moment. This virus has worked overtime to pick up "critical mass."

By critical mas I'm referring to the point where enough people are infected with the virus that it can sustain a chain reaction and expand out of control. The bad news is Ebola may have already reached this level and may now be impossible to contain. The economic and humanitarian implications of this are massive and it could change everything. More on why we should be very concerned in the article below.

 http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/09/ebola-may-have-reached-critical-m...

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:08 | 5299775 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

You don't understand the basic facts of the situation here. There is no known carrier; no person who was not symptomatic who infected anyone. A viral disease is not a bacterial disease. Typoid Mary had a Typhus Bacteria that she was able to contaminate water supplies with. Virus patients become "Viremic"; their bodies are overwhelmed with trillions of particles that cause the terminal symptoms and death. There may be millions of people who would test positive for Ebola virus, given the basically useless tests which are available, and who will never infect anyone. these are not "carriers". It should be assumed that non-symptomatic persons are non-infectious until large amounts of carefully collected date indicate otherwise.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:23 | 5299862 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

sat 800, you are an idiot, but nice none the less

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 10:02 | 5298548 Dr Strangemember
Dr Strangemember's picture

I don't totally disagree with you.  However, since when did every disease in the world become the US's to cure?  Why are no Russians looking for a cure, or Chinese, or Brazilians, or Canadians, or Swedes?  WTF?  Why are we the villain here?  

Stop being to ignorant!

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:54 | 5300010 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

If you want a cure try the Bob Beck Protocol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMlXd9hLpcY

Original discovery of how to destroy AIDS virus with 100 micro amperes of electricity made by Dr. Wyman and Dr. Kaali at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 1990, has since been applied to many other infections diseases using devices developed by physicist Bob Beck.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 11:26 | 5298936 rwe2late
rwe2late's picture

Dr Strangemember

Perhaps because the US has been the "leader" in studying how

to weaponize Ebola from the beginning.

US Bio-warfare researchers were there from before the beginning of the recent outbreak.

The research program, occurring in Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, and Liberia—said to be the epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak—has the announced purpose, among others, of detecting the future use of fever-viruses as bioweapons.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/what-are-us-biological-warfare-researchers-...

Your allegation that no other nations have or are now sending MEDICAL (not military) personnel and supplies is pure nonsense.

Stop being such a self-righteous ignoramus.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 07:38 | 5298023 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

in science there is this thing called "the bell shaped curve", the 5% at either end is data that falls outside of the norms, one person here stated on another ebola thread: that  virus disease  is not a problem or else humans would not exist, missed the class on the bell curve. what has made humans survive is the groups in the 5% zones..so what part of the bell curve are you on (the ebola survival curve that is)..I would rather not find out that you very much mr no quarantine cdc head.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 07:23 | 5297988 taketheredpill
taketheredpill's picture

 

 

How is this news?  Ebola is carried for 21 days BEFORE presenting symptoms.  So you can carry it but now show it.  But (suppposedly) you can't transmit the disease until you present symptoms.

 

Nothing new here.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 07:39 | 5298013 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

It is news in that it proves the viru can move around easier than some "experts" said or thought.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 08:36 | 5298203 mcguire
mcguire's picture

it is also a reminder how inadequate current precautions are regarding border controls... at airports they check for sympotms.  duh.  ISIS members could go to liberia and eat ebola sandwiches, then go anywhere in the world and wait for 3 weeks until their bodies become biological weapons..

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 02:24 | 5297784 vegan
vegan's picture

"Dr. Leroy’s team studied 25 individuals who never developed symptoms although they lived with family members and cared for them without using gloves and other precautions in two outbreaks in Gabon in 1996."

Many in West Africa May Be Immune to Ebola Virus
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/health/ebola-immunity.html?_r=0

Clinical, Virologic, and Immunologic Follow-Up of Convalescent Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Patients and Their Household Contacts, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/179/Supplement_1/S28.short

Native people in Gabon seem to have a very high prevalence of natural immunity to Ebola; natural selection at work. As I understand it, they would test positive for antibodies, after exposure to the virus, but not get sick. Not sure how this would scale among other populations, but I suspect it's insignificant.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 13:49 | 5299668 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

your understanding is correct; vis a vis an antibody test.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 01:20 | 5297734 besnook
besnook's picture

i am not ready for hysterical, yet, living in a low hazard area, but if i lived in an urban area on the usa mainland or europe i would dig out my duct tape and poly tarp just in case.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 01:01 | 5297701 Barley Burnside
Barley Burnside's picture

Uh, my fellow American folks, a um, as you folks president, um ah, I believe the best way for folks, um,er, to stay safe is to hunker down, um, and folks shouldn't act stupidly,um, er, we are going to get to the bottom,er,um of this crisis... You folks will need to stay indoors and, um, leave a urine sample and ,erm uh, any fire arms on you folks doorstep and um, a, um, the proper authorities will be by to, um collect them.. Banack Nobama

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 09:48 | 5298501 SmallerGovNow2
SmallerGovNow2's picture

Banack Obola...

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 00:21 | 5297640 russwinter
russwinter's picture

CDC's Thomas Friedan: Bureaucratic Knucklehead or True Evil? 

http://winteractionables.com/?p=15319

 

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 05:50 | 5297898 Mareka
Mareka's picture

Thomas Frieden, "knucklehead or true evil".  Sums it up perfectly.

Either way it is bad news for we the people.

The following line from Frieden with regard to the Dalls situation made it crystal clear to me that the man was a liar or an idiot.

"The bottom line here is that I have no doubt that we will control this"

"no doubt" about the outcome of something that is made up of hundreds of uncontrollable events.

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 23:08 | 5297454 stacking12321
stacking12321's picture

hey, george, this is some rather disingenuous straw-man innuendo:

""Postscript to anti-statists who don't think the gov can do anything helpful: Please let us know a free market solution.  If you have a good one, I will shout it from the rooftops.""

it is not the position of myself or libertarian/anarchist/voluntaryist types that i know of ("anti-statists"), that the gov can't do anything useful. the gov often does things that are "useful", such as building roads or airports, but the issue is, is it moral? is it right? does one person or group of people have the right to take away rights or property from others by means of force? even if it is for what is supposedly a "good cause"?

also, as far as your comment "let us know a free market solution": it is not anyone's responsibility to provide you with any solution. i won't claim that i know what is the best "solution" to your problem. i have my own life, and i will enact my own solution to my situation. i won't try to impose my ideas or beliefs on you, and i hope you will not attempt or support attempts of anyone to impose their ideas on others, either.

just because one is concerned or afraid about ebola, doesn't justify infringing the rights of others. as ben franklin put it, Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety

as far my own personal solution: if it starts to get bad in the US, go to a bug-out location and wait it out. either that or just go on with life as usual, and hope for the best; there is risk in any endeavor, including driving down the highway - people die every day. does that mean you will never drive again? i can only make the choices that seem right for me.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 01:11 | 5297720 George Washington
George Washington's picture

As I wrote below ...

I was NOT trying to be sarcastic!  And I'm not a statist ... I'm for
whatever WORKS, whether it's from the gov or the private sector.

I am asking HUMBLY and SINCERELY ... especially since CDC, WHO and
all of the other agencies have royally screwed up the Ebola response.

Also,  ZH regular mnewn has previously criticized my Ebola posts by calling me a statist.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:57 | 5300033 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

The free market may already have the cure, the Bob Beck Protocol. It would be possible to test it for under $1000 dollars in electronics gear and a few 9 volt batteries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMlXd9hLpcY

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 10:04 | 5298560 Miffed Microbio...
Miffed Microbiologist's picture

The only thing that has ever historically worked with Ebola was allowing those infected to die and have it naturally burn out due to a lack of hosts available. No government, philanthropic organization, military or scientific approach has EVER worked. I would never look to these organizations for help but just adding to the problem by putting more people in harms way.

Dealing with Ebola is quite simple. It is the sentient beings that cause the problem. Believe me I take no joy in this fact and wish it weren't so but this is the simple sad reality and I am looking down the barrel of a rifle where I sit.

Miffed

Wed, 10/08/2014 - 11:06 | 5303157 Otto Zitte
Otto Zitte's picture

cholera

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 13:58 | 5299716 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

A military or philantropic approach is pretty funny; but do you know of anything that precludes the possibility of vaccination? I mean, technically; not the actual problem; human stupidity and the inevitable vaccine related mortality, etc, etc.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 11:46 | 5299052 espirit
espirit's picture

Emperor Caniggula fiddles while Rome burns. 

Wed, 10/08/2014 - 11:08 | 5303168 Otto Zitte
Otto Zitte's picture

If thats what you think you're going to wake up homeless on the land my fathers built. In another nation.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 02:13 | 5297779 stacking12321
stacking12321's picture

hey george, you just copied and pasted the exact same text that you wrote from a few posts above.

this was not a reply to my post - i did not say you were being sarcastic, i did not say you were  a statist.

what you coped and pasted is not a reply to the statements i put forth.

if you don't want to respond to the points i made above, that's fine, you have the right to back down from a challenge :)

 

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 22:51 | 5297406 Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

"Some May Carry Ebola Without Showing Any Symptoms"

Lousy title/headline -- it makes no sense.

"Aerosol Transmission"

Don't forget to know that "aerosol" is not the same as "airborne."

"Ebola Is Mutating"

There is no evidence that ebola is mutating.
There are however countless articles that twist very remote potential into fact.

"We Need a World War 2, Marshall Plan or Moon Landing Level Effort to Stop This"

But much more First, we need to stop the fearmongering.

Shame on you, George Washington.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:19 | 5299834 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Yes; you're right. But fear mongering is what he does for a living; remember the radiation from Fukushima is going to ruin everything on the West Coast, at least. There's nothing George Ignorance isn't ready and willing to shill for.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 02:35 | 5297789 Global Observer
Global Observer's picture

"We Need a World War 2, Marshall Plan or Moon Landing Level Effort to Stop This"

But much more First, we need to stop the fearmongering.

How do you expect them to justify that level of spending without first scaring the population out of their wits?

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 13:47 | 5299652 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Well, "global warming" didn't work out all that well, did it? You can't have a big tax and spend program without a fear campaign first.

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 22:00 | 5297276 bilejones
bilejones's picture

"Postscript to anti-statists who don't think the gov can do anything helpful: Please let us know a free market solution.  If you have a good one, I will shout it from the rooftops."

 

Ah the usual anal leakage of the collectivists.

 

How can there be a free market solution within a State?

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 22:25 | 5297333 George Washington
George Washington's picture

As I wrote below ...

I was NOT trying to be sarcastic!  And I'm not a statist ... I'm for
whatever WORKS, whether it's from the gov or the private sector.

I am asking HUMBLY and SINCERELY ... especially since CDC, WHO and
all of the other agencies have royally screwed up the Ebola response.

Also,  ZH regular mnewn has previously criticized my Ebola posts by calling me a statist.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 08:28 | 5298167 Global Observer
Global Observer's picture

Why do you assume there is a solution that "works" (whatever that means)?

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 22:00 | 5297272 Reaper
Reaper's picture

This is nothing new. Typhoid Mary carried, but was unaffected. Are there Ebola Barrys? Likely, because some survive Ebola. We all breathe out body fluids in our every breath(We fog mirrors). Government scientists lie, so that government continues to fund them. What info we receive about Ebola comes from government sources, all of whom are compromised or lying.

What can you do? Don't trust the government or its media stooges. Would the government tell you Ebola is mutating? Would the government or the pharmaceutical companies produce a real vaccine or curing serum? Observe what happens? Who survives. Who succumbs. What is good science? Observation and conclusion, not trust. What is survival? The fittest or the most observant and adaptable.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:13 | 5299803 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

People who recover from, ie. "survive", Ebola; will have such low levels of viral particles in their bodies they won't be able to infect anyone. This is a science subject; unfortunately, you have to go study before you can understand anything.  Typhoid Mary carried a bacteria in her gut that could infect water supples; viral diseases are not bacterial diseases. The situation is completely different.

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 19:43 | 5301216 Reaper
Reaper's picture

How do you know the level in their bodies? There are immune viral carriers. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hiv-aids-controllers/

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 21:46 | 5297230 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Blockade Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. What they have is far worse than ebola.

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 19:49 | 5296836 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Shocking how many wouldn't believe the propaganda media even if they said the sky was blue, and also know about the lies, deceit, and false-flags of the DC US, and yet still believe this Ebola nonsense.

They don't lie sometimes, they lie all the time.

An American, not US subject.

 

"No sleeping or bleating permitted."

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 20:14 | 5296930 George Washington
George Washington's picture

The MSM is not admitting transmissibility ... NYT did so 14 years ago ... must have slipped by the editors.

Mon, 10/06/2014 - 21:48 | 5297240 knukles
knukles's picture

Yorp...  The only thing we learn form history is that we don't learn from history.

Gotta admit George, the whole "set up" is way past conventional stupidity, resting either in a "Don't create a global panic mode that'll empty the shelves and pumps and get us thrown off of our gravy train, because we can always fall back on it mutated" or for the extreme theorists, "The culling has begun." mode

Either way, it's a nightmare upon Earth come true.

And to your point about slipping past the editors....   Nope, no way.  I'm personally convinced that the NYT is the "Official" water carrier for Progressive policies and as such, will simply not turn upon the current administration until it is doing so in abject desperation in order to maintain some shred of circulation and ad space....  (I forecast that time is near, the rumblings have begun.)

Tue, 10/07/2014 - 14:15 | 5299816 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

It's a little early to be discussing nightmares on earth, Knucles. So far it's a media event. Remember Global Warming ?

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