Ebola mediums

[Dave Wilton]

In <3os7d9$18fc at news.doit.wisc.edu> Jason Velick
<javelick at students.wisc.edu> writes: 
>
>Yes, we have all heard that Ebola can definatly be spread with
>dirty syringes, and of course sexual contact.  In The Hot Zone, and 
>the Outbreak, Ebola was found to be transmitted also through the air.
>Ok, so why did Ted Koppel fail to mention this possiblity even once?
>Once and for all, can it be spread via the air?

Like so many things, it depends on definition, i.e., on what you mean
by airborne transmission. If an ebola victim aerosolizes the virus
(hacks sputum, vomit, or blood into the air) and another person
breathes in the aerosol, the second person can catch the disease.
Casual contact, however, is unlikely to result in infection (but it can
happen). In this respect it is not unlike tuberculosis. Hospital
workers and care givers are most at risk from this means of
transmission, but some minimal precautions can drastically reduce the
risk to them.

As a comparison, think of influenza and HIV. Influenza is very easily
transmitted through the air. This is what many people mean when they
speak of airborne transmission. Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan are clearly
not in this category. HIV, on the other hand, is not transmissable by
air at all. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum from influenza.
Ebola is somewhere between the two.

There is strong evidence to indicate that Ebola Reston is more easily
transmissable through the air than either the Zaire or Sudan strains. I
have seen no conclusive evidence of this (though it may exist).

Finally, to answer another poster's question. Nosocomial transmission
means that it is spread via hospitals (dirty needles, patients hacking
up sputum, etc.).

--Dave Wilton
  dwilton at ix.netcom.com