{"id":633,"date":"2014-10-26T10:48:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T14:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=633"},"modified":"2014-10-26T10:48:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T14:48:09","slug":"top-ebola-scientists-ebola-more-likely-to-be-spread-by-aerosol-in-cold-dry-conditions-than-in-hot-humid-africa-washingtons-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=633","title":{"rendered":"Top Ebola Scientists: Ebola More Likely to be Spread by Aerosol In Cold, Dry Conditions than In Hot, Humid Africa Washington&#8217;s Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonsblog.com\/2014\/10\/top-ebola-scientists-ebola-likely-spread-aerosol-cold-dry-conditions-hot-humid-africa.html\">Top Ebola Scientists: Ebola More Likely to be Spread by Aerosol In Cold, Dry Conditions than In Hot, Humid Africa Washington&#8217;s Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; font-weight: normal; color: #000099; line-height: 1.5em; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Army\u2019s Infectious Disease Research Unit and Discoverer of Ebola Strain Agree<\/h3>\n<p style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">We\u2019ve repeatedly warned that this strain of Ebola\u00a0<a style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; color: #0066cc; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" title=\"might be spread by aerosols\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonsblog.com\/2014\/10\/top-ebola-expert-strain-much-worse-ever-weve-seen.html\">might be spread by aerosols<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">But there is a fascinating and terrifying wrinkle to this \u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">You might assume that hot, steamy places would be more likely to spread deadly germs than developed countries. But the opposite might be true.<\/p>\n<p style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">In 1995, scientists from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)<a style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; color: #0066cc; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" title=\"reported\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1997182\/pdf\/ijexpath00004-0007.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0<em style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">International Journal of Experimental Pathology<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px 3em 0px 3em; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">\n<p style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\"><em style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">We also\u00a0<strong style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">demonstrated aerosol transmission of Ebola virus at lower temperature and humidity than that normally present in sub-Saharan Africa<\/strong>.<strong style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Ebola virus sensitivity to the high temperatures and humidity<\/strong>\u00a0in the thatched, mud, and wattel huts shared by infected family members in southern Sudan and northern Zaire may have been a factor limiting aerosol transmission of Ebola virus in the African epidemics.\u00a0<strong style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Both elevated temperature and relative humidity (RH) have been shown to reduce the aerosol stability of viruses<\/strong>\u00a0(Songer 1967). Our experiments were conducted at 24<sup style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; height: 0px; line-height: 1; position: relative; bottom: 1ex; font-size: 10px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">0<\/sup>C [i.e. 75 degrees Fahrenheit] and &lt; 40% RH, conditions which are known to favour the aerosol stability of at least two other African haemorrhagic fever viruses, Rift Valley fever and Lassa (Stephenson et a\/. 1984; Anderson et a\/. 1991).\u00a0<strong style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">If the same holds true for filoviruses<\/strong>\u00a0[Ebola is a type of filovirus],\u00a0<strong style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">aerosol transmission is a greater threat in modern hospital or laboratory settings than it is in the natural climatic ranges of viruses<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Ebola Scientists: Ebola More Likely to be Spread by Aerosol In Cold, Dry Conditions than In Hot, Humid Africa Washington&#8217;s Blog. Army\u2019s Infectious Disease Research Unit and Discoverer of Ebola Strain Agree We\u2019ve repeatedly warned that this strain of Ebola\u00a0might be spread by aerosols. But there is a fascinating and terrifying wrinkle to this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16,223,232,607],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-aerosol-transmission","tag-ebola","tag-ebola-virus","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}