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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Second person being monitored for Ebola
2014-10-02
[USATODAY] DALLAS -- Health officials are closely monitoring a possible second Ebola patient who had close contact with the first person to be diagnosed in the U.S., the director of Dallas County's health department said Wednesday.

All who have been in close contact with the man officially diagnosed are being monitored as a precaution, Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said in a morning interview with WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth.

"Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: The fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient," he said. "So this is real. There should be a concern, but it's contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment."

The director continued to assure residents that the public isn't at risk because health officials have the virus contained.
Posted by:Fred

#13  alan C

yes, its complicated

but your comment about schools is a good one - in fact a large body of mathematical models indicate that vaccination of school kids against the seasonal flu is the most cost effective way to limit the spread of this disease - that's both for the reason you mentioned (density of potential victims), because school kids run around a lot and get into things and because the vaccine frequently does not give immunity to old people
Posted by: lord garth   2014-10-02 17:17  

#12   more effective in climates cooler than that of Ebola's origin.

KBK this was part of what I read from Ft. D. too.

LG, you mean this s#!t is complicated? Don't say so. Aside from the snark the problem is that most people don't understand the complications. But I think it's fair to say that getting sneezed on or coughed on is not a good idea, no?

The environment of schools in particular is prone to toxicity.
Posted by: AlanC   2014-10-02 16:38  

#11  alanC

the airborne vector is complicated to describe

big droplets that you see on your hand after you sneeze would be infectious for at least a few moments if they carried live ebola virus but these droplets only travel a few feet

tiny droplets travel farther but the moisture is not enough to significantly prevent the virus itself from any toxic properties of heat, light and atmosphere

the annual influenza, against which most of us are vaccinated, travels (at least per current plurality theory) in big droplets because it makes people sneeze hard, among other things

the masks you see health care folks wear in hospitals are designed to trap particles above a very small diameter (say a half a micrometer in diameter) and to let gases through - an oxygen molecule is more than an order of magnitude smaller than such a particle


Posted by: lord garth   2014-10-02 16:08  

#10  Nearly 20 years ago, a refereed article disclosed lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus. Other articles I've seen indicate that this mode may be more effective in climates cooler than that of Ebola's origin.
Posted by: KBK   2014-10-02 14:31  

#9  2 points.

1) your lordship, what exactly does air borne mean in this case? According to what I read from Ft. Dietrich yesterday it is as contagious as flu in that sneezes or coughs spread an aerosolized version. Sounds sufficient to me.

2) Thank you ed in Tx, I thought maybe I was the only one paranoid/cynical enough to think of that.
Am I paranoid/cynical enough?
Posted by: AlanC   2014-10-02 13:53  

#8  skidmark

yes ozone is a powerful killer of both bacteria (used in many water treatment plants) and virus - in fact ozone has been tested in the lab to see how well it did against the H1N1 virus (sometimes known as avian flu) - it did very well

the atmosphere usually averages only about 5 parts per billion or so of ozone but because a virus is 'in the air' for quite a few seconds between the human source and the prospective human 'target', the anti viral effects are pretty impressive
Posted by: lord garth   2014-10-02 12:31  

#7  ZH says 100 being monitored.

The CDC is lying through its teeth. I wonder what's really going on?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2014-10-02 10:57  

#6  So the smog is protecting us from EB going airborne?
Posted by: Skidmark   2014-10-02 10:43  

#5  one in Hawaii as well.
Posted by: Frank G   2014-10-02 09:10  

#4  Gee, I wonder if it might be necessary to suspend the elections in November. Purely as a public health concern, of course.
Posted by: ed in texas   2014-10-02 07:37  

#3  Ebola hasn't needed to become airborne to get where it is today.

Posted by: Rob Crawford   2014-10-02 07:34  

#2  Thank you your Lordship. Yes, the mutations in Washington are of far more concern than those in Dallas or elsewhere.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-10-02 06:03  

#1  lots of speculation about the possibility that ebola will mutate into something that can be transmitted through air (like, say the flu)

remember that bubonic and black death were flea borne

HIV never became air transmitted

avian virus never became air transmitted

ebola has been around for at least 40 years now and not yet become air transmitted

it takes a virus with a pretty strong external protein surface to survive air - not just because of heat and light but also oxygen (particularly the ion of a single atom and ozone) degrade the protein coat -this doesnt mean its impossible just unlikely near term
Posted by: lord garth   2014-10-02 00:32  

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