Home > Medical > Disease > Ebola in the Air Tonight CATEGORIES: Autos Business Cokelore College Computers Crime Critter Country Disney Embarrassments Fauxtography Food Fraud & Scams Glurge Gallery History Holidays Horrors Humor Inboxer Rebellion Language Legal Lost Legends Love Luck Media Matters Medical Military Movies Music Old Wives Tales Politics Pregnancy Quotes Racial Rumors Radio & TV Religion Risqué Business Science September 11 Sports Travel Weddings E-mail this 11 Tumblr 6 Email 5 Stumble 5 Reddit 1.8K Share 93 Tweet 6 Ebola in the Air Tonight Claim: The CDC admitted that Ebola is now airborne. FALSE Example: [Collected via email, October 2014] The CDC is forced to admit that Ebola is airborne. Origins: In the summer of 2014 rumors began to circulate on email and across a number of blogs that the Centers for Disease Control admitted the Ebola virus had mutated and become airborne. Fears about Ebola and its mode of transmission escalated after the CDC confirmed a patient in Dallas tested positive for the disease in late September 2014. The patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died on 8 October 2014. On 6 October, CNN published an article about the possibility of Ebola mutating. The network quoted director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota Dr. Michael Osterholm on the potential for airborne Ebola: Its the single greatest concern Ive ever had in my 40-year public health career. I cant imagine anything in my career — and this includes HIV — that would be more devastating to the world than a respiratory transmissible Ebola virus. On 6 October 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a situation assessment reiterating what scientists know thus far about how Ebola is transmitted. The WHO noted that no evidence to date supports the belief that Ebola is airborne and did not indicate in any fashion that rumors suggesting otherwise had any merit: Ebola virus disease is not an airborne infection. Airborne spread among humans implies inhalation of an infectious dose of virus from a suspended cloud of small dried droplets. This mode of transmission has not been observed during extensive studies of the Ebola virus over several decades. Common sense and observation tell us that spread of the virus via coughing or sneezing is rare, if it happens at all. Epidemiological data emerging from the outbreak are not consistent with the pattern of spread seen with airborne viruses, like those that cause measles and chickenpox, or the airborne bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Theoretically, wet and bigger droplets from a heavily infected individual, who has respiratory symptoms caused by other conditions or who vomits violently, could transmit the virus — over a short distance — to another nearby person. This could happen when virus-laden heavy droplets are directly propelled, by coughing or sneezing (which does not mean airborne transmission) onto the mucus membranes or skin with cuts or abrasions of another person. WHO is not aware of any studies that actually document this mode of transmission. On the contrary, good quality studies from previous Ebola outbreaks show that all cases were infected by direct close contact with symptomatic patients. According to the WHO, no known leaps of a similar nature have occurred with viruses that affect humans: Scientists are unaware of any virus that has dramatically changed its mode of transmission. For example, the H5N1 avian influenza virus, which has caused sporadic human cases since 1997, is now endemic in chickens and ducks in large parts of Asia. That virus has probably circulated through many billions of birds for at least two decades. Its mode of transmission remains basically unchanged. Speculation that Ebola virus disease might mutate into a form that could easily spread among humans through the air is just that: speculation, unsubstantiated by any evidence. This kind of speculation is unfounded but understandable as health officials race to catch up with this fast-moving and rapidly evolving outbreak. CDC Director Thomas Friedan addressed rumors of airborne Ebola during a phone call with reporters on 7 October. Friedan acknowledged concerns about such a development and said: The rate of change [with Ebola] is slower than most viruses, and most viruses dont change how they spread, he said. Frieden is unofficially spearheading the U.S. response to Ebola. That is not to say its impossible that it could change [to become airborne], he continued. That would be the worst-case scenario. We would know that by looking at ... what is happening in Africa. That is why we have scientists from the CDC on the ground tracking that. Speaking to Scientific American, infectious disease expert William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University dismissed speculation over airborne Ebola as an irrelevancy: We have so many problems with Ebola, lets not make another one that, of course, is theoretically possible but is pretty way down on the list of likely issues. So not only have the CDC and WHO not been forced to admit that Ebola is now airborne, scientists believe that the possibility is exceedingly remote. Last updated: 9 October 2014 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2014 by snopes. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes logo are registered service marks of snopes. Sources: Cohen, Elizabeth. Ebola In The Air? A Nightmare That Could Happen. CNN 6 October 2014. Fine Maron, Dina. Fact or Fiction?: The Ebola Virus Will Go Airborne Scientific American. 16 September 2014. Viebeck, Elise. CDC: Airborne Ebola Possible But Unlikely The Hill. 7 October 2014. Read more at snopes/medical/disease/ebolaairborne.asp#06sOC01Q0SZrDIkp.99
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 05:39:08 +0000
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