Ebola experts are denying recent claims and news that the Ebola virus can become airborne. In an issue briefing conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine where the experts of Ebola were gathered, evidence suggests that the Ebola virus can only be transmitted through body fluids.
The recent epidemic and past outbreaks in the past has evidences that the transmissions required the transfer of body fluids from the infected person to another person. They say that if the transmission can be through airborne, then there should have been cases that are not directly linked to the infected person.
According to the World Health Organization recent data on Ebola outbreak, there are now more than 4,800 deaths due to the virus and 322 deaths were recorded in just the past five days. Though this data is alarming, it is transmitted through droplets or body fluids, not from air particles. They say that if it could have been airborne, then there should be spontaneous cases not directly linked to the person who is infected.
The significant exposure of infected individuals to the virus is rooted on the direct contact they had. Direct contact with the infected person's body fluids like vomit and feces are most likely the transmitting mode of the virus. Since the symptoms entails diarrhea and vomiting, then contact with these fluids would most likely cause transmission of the virus.
During the quarantine of the family of the first patient in the United States to have Ebola, Thomas Eric Duncan, no one got infected even though they are in just one house. However, the nurses who took care of the patient were infected. This is because they somehow had contact with the patient's body fluids.
Health officials would want to make this information clear to the public due to the panic circulating that the disease is airborne. The widespread panic among Americans is alarming and information dissemination is important in this moment.