Serious question, just out of curiosity -

[hedgehog]

can someone explain the difference to me between a virus spread by coughing or sneezing, and a virus that goes airborne? Or is that what going airborne means? Does it have anything to do with how long a virus can survive outside of a warm body?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Airborne viruses

drop onto you with tiny little parachutes.

[hedgehog]

2. I applaud you for having a sense of humor that matched my own.

Now, DUCK! INCOMING!

[pipi_k]

3. So do they

jump out of the helicopter willingly, or do they have to be pushed out?

[Whiskeytide]

5. Uh oh. Are these the helicopters I've been hearing about in Syria???

I think you have actually tied Ebola to Isis in a completely illogical and unsubstantiated way. NOW WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TWICE!!!


On the plus side, though, you're probably about to get a guest spot on a prime time Fox News segment. Congrats!!!

[Jackpine Radical]

9. No helicopters. They're AirBORNE, not airmobile.

I think they have to push them out of the tiny little C-130s

[MissB]

8. Best answer!

[Marrah_G]

4. It has to do with the size and length of time a virus is in the air

If someone sneezed in your eyes...that would be contact with bodily fluids and not airborne. it is fluid to fluid contamination.

Airborne travels through the air for an extended period of time and goes from respitory system to respitory system.

That is why ebola is unlikely to become airborne in humans. It is transmitted by fluids and not through the respiratory system. Viruses mutate, but they don't (as far as is known) mutate to a completely different type of virus.

[Avalux]

6. Coughing and sneezing are modes of airborne transmission.

This means that viral particles are able to be suspended in air (gas); they are small enough to remain suspended in the air for prolonged periods of time. Coughing or sneezing expels viral particles into the air where they shrink in size through evaporation, these are referred to as droplet nuclei. These particles are very tiny, and can travel over distance. Once inhaled and in the presence of humidity (as in the lungs), they swell back to their original size and cause infection. Human influenza A (flu) can be spread this way. It is estimated that about half of flu cases are contracted through aerosolized particles, while the other half through contact with fluid or surfaces (direct contact).

Now if a person coughs or sneezes within very close proximity to another person - which would be direct contact with droplets - that is different than airborne transmission via aerosolization.

A lot of viruses can survive outside the body for a period of time either in fluid or on surfaces. That's why hand washing and disinfecting is so important.

BTW, Ebola has demonstrated the ability to be aerosolized in the laboratory through manipulation; however, in the real world it hasn't undergone mutation to be able to do this. It's a fairly stable filovirus and has a relatively slow mutation rate (say, compared to the flu and HIV), which is a good thing.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/Fact_Sheets/Filovirus_Fact_Sheet.pdf

[WinkyDink]

7. Basically, if the air in and of itself transmits the virus, or if the virus needs a "vehicle", e.g.,

a water droplet from sneeze or a cough.

The former would be far more dangerous in being invisible and unhindered by gravity.

BUT IN NORMAL LAYMAN'S TERMS? Anything that travels any distance in the air is "air-borne."

[scarystuffyo]

10. A more serious problem will be if it mutates where it will be able to be passed

by insects . It has a better chance of that happening than it going airborne.

It has mutated 400 times in the ten year study they did.

Funny thing is Ebola and Lyme disease were discovered about the same time in the 1975
Doctors and researchers didn't discover what Lyme disease was until years later and that
it was being spread by tick bites . It started in 1975 in a very a small town in CT with 40 to 50 people
being diagnosed with arthritis to the point where many as young as 5 years old were
confined to wheelchairs .

From then until now it has spread to
Delaware
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Wisconsin


and affects over 300,000 people a year


The studies that have been conducted with Ebola have said that there is no evidence that it can be spread
through mosquitoes or ticks , No research has ever said that it can't be either...just that there's no evidence .

The way this is mutating now it's very possible it can go from animal to insect in how it can be spread.


Ebola is one of the most deadly virus yet the research that has been done on it is infant.

[scarystuffyo]

11. We know Bats can carry Ebola

It's confirmed Bats carry the Ebola virus , mosquito bites bat , mosquito bites human


If you see these two , duck and cover

[hedgehog]

12. Thank you all for some concise explanations,

or for some examples of how to avoid running about with hair on fire.