Top Ebola Doctor Warns Of Possible Airborne Ebola Virus Spread
Erika Villanueva | | Oct 14, 2014 07:00 AM EDT |
(Photo : Reuters / Reuters TV) An ambulance carrying a Spanish nurse infected with Ebola arrives at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid early October 7, 2014 in this still image from video.
Top Ebola doctor David Sanders warns that it is possible for the dreaded virus to start spreading by air besides infection through physical contact with an infected person.
During a Monday interview with Fox News' "The Real Story, Sanders, a professor at Purdue University's Biological Science department, explained that a very closely related virus is known to pass among animals through airways.
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"I'm not saying that there's any evidence that the current spread is due to anything but bodily fluid contact, but we have to consider the possibility that it can enter through an airway route," Sanders told Fox News' Gretchen Carlson.
Sanders said their own shows that Ebola Zaire can enter human lung cells from the airway. He said it has the inherent capacity to enter the lung from the airway.
He also explained that the virus can "morph" or "mutate" as it spreads widely in Africa, recommending more vigorous training for workers that deal with Ebola patients at the center of the outbreak.
Sanders also emphasized that medical personnel should be "100 percent" knowledgeable in using equipment as well as enacting protocols to avoid cases similar to the Dallas nurse infection to happen again.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had maintained their opinion that a person can only catch the Ebola virus through having contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
According to Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert, no virus known to cause diseases in humans can "mutate to change its mode of transmission" emphasizing that it is "highly unlikely" that the Ebola virus can become airborne.
"This means it is highly unlikely that Ebola has mutated to become airborne. It is, however, droplet-borne - and the distinction between the two is crucial," Gounder wrote explaining that being airborne means "that the disease-causing germs are so small they can live dry, floating in the air for extended periods" making it plausible for the virus to be transferred to another person at a distance.
Droplet-borne infections are those which another person comes in contact with a spray of secretions of one patient into the air, including that from an Ebola patient's vomit.
This means that the Ebola virus' transmission via air is limited to only a few feet away and may often be received by exposed openings in the body such as the eyes, nose or mouth.
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