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Originally Posted by ladyjane  Are you sure about that? I read somewhere that it lives off host for 1 - 2 days. I need to go websearch it, but I am sure I read it.
That said, I am by no means in a major panic and trust this will be well controlled.
The people who are freaking out really need to realize that the way infection control is in Africa cannot be compared to the US . |
Here's what little I've found out but it gave me as much security as I guess anyone can have in this day and age. None of the highly respected and most-lettered doctors in the epidemiology/infectious disease fields seem to be that worried, nor are those working in research and in those fields recommending Draconian measures to prevent, contain and live with this disease now that it's in our midst.
Marshall Emory, M. D., MMSc(Masters Degree in Master of Medical Science, Clinical Investigations, from Harvard Medical School and a fellowship at Mass. General in Infectious Diseases and additional Epidemic Intelligence Service training at the CDC ), Associate Professor of the Emory University School of Medicine, just said yesterday on CNN during a live interview with Fredricka Whitfield that the Ebola virus is a wimpy virus and is dead on environmental surfaces within 30 - 60 minutes after leaving the human body.
A little bit of online research though shows some laboratory studies have proved it can live under certain laboratory conditions up to 50 days(see link below - more in depth information than I could easily find at the CDC website). But who knows who funded or performed the studies, the quality of the study protocols and how the data and conclusions were calculated, peer reviewed, etc. - I won't bother to check on that. I've read on the CDC website that in one study Ebola "sub-populations" persisted in organic debris, but again, no particulars on all the factors involved in the study. Still I tend to place my faith with the doctors on the firing line who have worked for years with this disease when it's in the environment we humans live in.
Dr. Lyon said rubbing alcohol, soap and water, hand sanitizer and bleach all kill the virus once it's off its host. I've also read that direct sunlight, UV light and heat kill it. I would tend to give more credence to a combination medical researcher, clinical investigator and practicing medical doctor in the field of infectious diseases, one of the team who attended Ken Brantly, M. D. and Nancy Writbol, during their stay at Emory University Hospital for Ebola management, over lab studies under certain conditions.
Dr. Emory works with Ebola and other highly infectious/communicable diseases and how they infect and affect actual patients and their contacts in the real world. And he's just one of the parade of similar doctors who are telling the public and media that this virus can be extremely deadly to its human hosts but not all that easy to contract as long as infectious/communicable disease precautions and management are taken.
Ebolavirus - Pathogen Safety Data Sheets Interim Guidance for Environmental Infection Control in Hospitals for Ebola Virus | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC