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ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl

Ebola isn't airborne. Ebola is only spread through bodily fluids. So that's supposed to make it difficult to transmit? Why then are so many health care workers, who take every precaution, catching it? These are people who don't go near Ebola patients without wearing protective gear. This tells me that despite what we are being told, airborne or not, Ebola is pretty easy to catch. Unlike HIV/AIDS, Ebola is spread by all bodily fluids including sweat. What does the human body do when outside in the summer? How hard would it be for someone's hand to touch the back of a bus seat containing sweat from the last person who sat there, then use that same hand to wipe sweat out of their own eyes? What about people with sweaty palms touching checkout registers at the store? It's probably true that test tubes containing the Ebola virus have been in the US labs for years, but how can that be compared to an infected person? Test tubes don't piss, poop, sweat, cough, sneeze, or vomit.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

NPR interviewed doctors over there who explained.

Main reasons are (1) removing garb incorrectly or in the wrong order (it's a long list of strict protocol) and (2) fatigue from doing this over and over and over and over in garb that quickly reaches 140 degrees Farenheit.

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ORIGINAL: subrosaDom

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ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl

Ebola isn't airborne. Ebola is only spread through bodily fluids. So that's supposed to make it difficult to transmit? Why then are so many health care workers, who take every precaution, catching it? These are people who don't go near Ebola patients without wearing protective gear. This tells me that despite what we are being told, airborne or not, Ebola is pretty easy to catch. Unlike HIV/AIDS, Ebola is spread by all bodily fluids including sweat. What does the human body do when outside in the summer? How hard would it be for someone's hand to touch the back of a bus seat containing sweat from the last person who sat there, then use that same hand to wipe sweat out of their own eyes? What about people with sweaty palms touching checkout registers at the store? It's probably true that test tubes containing the Ebola virus have been in the US labs for years, but how can that be compared to an infected person? Test tubes don't piss, poop, sweat, cough, sneeze, or vomit.

The question is how long the virus can survive in these environments. Take your bus seat example. Some virus might live there for days; others for 1 second. I don't know the answer, but your questions are legitimate and have known answers. And all bodily fluids are not created equal. Urine tends to be acidic for example. Sweat is, among other things, salty. So ebola doesn't necessarily survive in ALL bodily fluids. Again, legitimate questions, and I don't know the answers, but there clearly ARE answers to these questions. I would imagine someone here (perhaps DomKen who seems pretty knowledgeable in this area) has the answers.

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

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ORIGINAL: subrosaDom

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ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl

Ebola isn't airborne. Ebola is only spread through bodily fluids. So that's supposed to make it difficult to transmit? Why then are so many health care workers, who take every precaution, catching it? These are people who don't go near Ebola patients without wearing protective gear. This tells me that despite what we are being told, airborne or not, Ebola is pretty easy to catch. Unlike HIV/AIDS, Ebola is spread by all bodily fluids including sweat. What does the human body do when outside in the summer? How hard would it be for someone's hand to touch the back of a bus seat containing sweat from the last person who sat there, then use that same hand to wipe sweat out of their own eyes? What about people with sweaty palms touching checkout registers at the store? It's probably true that test tubes containing the Ebola virus have been in the US labs for years, but how can that be compared to an infected person? Test tubes don't piss, poop, sweat, cough, sneeze, or vomit.

The question is how long the virus can survive in these environments. Take your bus seat example. Some virus might live there for days; others for 1 second. I don't know the answer, but your questions are legitimate and have known answers. And all bodily fluids are not created equal. Urine tends to be acidic for example. Sweat is, among other things, salty. So ebola doesn't necessarily survive in ALL bodily fluids. Again, legitimate questions, and I don't know the answers, but there clearly ARE answers to these questions. I would imagine someone here (perhaps DomKen who seems pretty knowledgeable in this area) has the answers.

Ebola can survive in fruit bat saliva and mammalian saliva is a mild base so it should be able to handle at least a moderate ph range. It is essentially just a couple of proteins surrounding some RNA so a high or low enough ph would denature the protein shell but that would take a higher/lower ph than you're likely to see in the human body outside stomach acid and bile.

How long it can survive outside a host is an open question as far as I can tell. If the fruit bat saliva to people vector is correct it can survive for quite some time.

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ORIGINAL: subrosaDom

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

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ORIGINAL: subrosaDom

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ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl

Ebola isn't airborne. Ebola is only spread through bodily fluids. So that's supposed to make it difficult to transmit? Why then are so many health care workers, who take every precaution, catching it? These are people who don't go near Ebola patients without wearing protective gear. This tells me that despite what we are being told, airborne or not, Ebola is pretty easy to catch. Unlike HIV/AIDS, Ebola is spread by all bodily fluids including sweat. What does the human body do when outside in the summer? How hard would it be for someone's hand to touch the back of a bus seat containing sweat from the last person who sat there, then use that same hand to wipe sweat out of their own eyes? What about people with sweaty palms touching checkout registers at the store? It's probably true that test tubes containing the Ebola virus have been in the US labs for years, but how can that be compared to an infected person? Test tubes don't piss, poop, sweat, cough, sneeze, or vomit.

The question is how long the virus can survive in these environments. Take your bus seat example. Some virus might live there for days; others for 1 second. I don't know the answer, but your questions are legitimate and have known answers. And all bodily fluids are not created equal. Urine tends to be acidic for example. Sweat is, among other things, salty. So ebola doesn't necessarily survive in ALL bodily fluids. Again, legitimate questions, and I don't know the answers, but there clearly ARE answers to these questions. I would imagine someone here (perhaps DomKen who seems pretty knowledgeable in this area) has the answers.

Ebola can survive in fruit bat saliva and mammalian saliva is a mild base so it should be able to handle at least a moderate ph range. It is essentially just a couple of proteins surrounding some RNA so a high or low enough ph would denature the protein shell but that would take a higher/lower ph than you're likely to see in the human body outside stomach acid and bile.

How long it can survive outside a host is an open question as far as I can tell. If the fruit bat saliva to people vector is correct it can survive for quite some time.

That suggests then, that defiantbadgirl's concerns may be valid -- or at least possibilities. That's disconcerting.

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

After doing some research I'm not even sure the virus is shed in sweat. All the discussions on transmission I've found don't mention sweat as a possible vector. I've emailed someone I know who does research in infectious diseases but I don't expect to hear from her till Monday.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity

Heretic! The science is settled! Quit asking questions.

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ORIGINAL: subrosaDom

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

After doing some research I'm not even sure the virus is shed in sweat. All the discussions on transmission I've found don't mention sweat as a possible vector. I've emailed someone I know who does research in infectious diseases but I don't expect to hear from her till Monday.

Right. I'm not sure either. It's even possible they're not sure. The odds of getting HIV via fellatio for example are very low, but not absolutely 0, if you have breaks in the skin. But it will be interesting to hear from your friend.

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ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl
These are people who don't go near Ebola patients without wearing protective gear.

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After doing some research I'm not even sure the virus is shed in sweat.