Cole Barrett October 15

th
2014

Society Fears Ebola Virus May Become Airborne
Among all of the recent societal panic over the current outbreak of Ebola in
Africa, CNN posted an article, called Ebola in the air? A nightmare that could happen
(2014), addressing the public fear that the Ebola virus may become airborne and become
an even greater threat due to its increased ability to pass from person to person without
any direct contact with a person infected with the disease. Before it can be discussed
whether or not this is possible, a brief history of Ebola and its transmission should be
discussed.
Humans were first affected by the hemorrhagic fever, which had not yet been
named, in Sudan, near Zaire (currently Democratic Republic of Congo). This outbreak
occurred in 1976 and had a mortality rate of 56%. 150 of those 284 affected died due to
the virus. (Pourrut et al. 2005) The second outbreak occurred very close in Zaire and it
infected nearly 320 victims with a mortality rate of almost 90%. At this point the virus,
which caused fever, diarrhea, trouble breathing, as well as internal bleeding, was named
after the Ebola River that ran through the center of the region that contained these
infections. (Pourrut et al. 2005) Another, much smaller, case was recorded a few years
later near the same region. 15 years passed before another human outbreak of Ebola
occurred. This time in between 1994 and 1997 contained several outbreaks in Africa,
nearly all originating from contact with chimpanzees who had died from the virus.
(Pourrut et al. 2005) In the early 2000s a few outbreaks occurred of relatively small
magnitude but with similar mortality rates.
The transmission of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, from human to human, is at its
greatest frequency in the late stages of illness or after the death of the infected human.
The virus can be transmitted through contact with blood, vomit, stool, or sweat. One is at
greater risk to contract the disease if they use the bed of one affected if it is not properly
disinfected, sharing a meal, or touching a cadaver of an infected individual. No
respiratory aerosol transmission has between recorded from person to person to date.
(Dowell et al. 1995) With this being considered, the reproductive rate of the virus is
relatively low from person to person, with an average of 2.7 individuals being infected by
each infected individual. The virus cannot be spread in the incubation period, which
usually lasts between 3 to 21 days. However, it can still be passed in the bodily fluid of
and individual after recovery from symptoms for up to 3 months as shown in one case.
(Ki 2014)
In the years between outbreaks of Ebola, the virus was preserved through many
animals in Africa. These include, but are not limited to, non-human primates, and other
African Bush game animals, such as antelopes. These wild animals display the
symptoms of Ebola and many pass on the virus to predators and humans who touch or eat
their carcasses after death. Several species of bats in Africa have been found to carry the
virus but not show its symptoms. These bats are a reservoir for the disease and keep it
alive and well in periods when few animals and no humans are affected. While it has not
been proven, there is some evidence that bats have passed the disease on to humans.
(Leroy et al. 2005) However, because the virus does not affect the bats negatively, it is
freely spread and its hosts do not die before they can pass it on, it is plausible that there is
very little environmental pressure that would cause a mutation, such as airborne
infectivity in humans, to become the dominant phenotype. The virus has shown, in a lab
setting, to be passed from affected pigs to non-human primates without direct physical
contact with the pigs or their bodily fluids. This suggests that the Ebola virus can be
passed to non-human primates, in this case, macaque monkeys, through small particle
respiratory aerosol. The affected areas originating in the lungs and respiratory tracts of
the infected primates confirm this. While the individual primates were not tested whether
it could be passed from primate to primate in the same manner, it does show that the virus
has the ability to mutate into one that could be passed from human to human via airborne
aerosol, as it has already done so from one animal species to another. (Weinartl et al.
2012)
The current Ebola outbreak has raised concern over whether it might become
airborne between humans. A team of researchers found 300 genetic variations in the
virus between samples 3 weeks apart. (Cohen 2014) This fast rate of change and genetic
diversity means that it is possible that the virus could mutate into one that is contagious
from person to person without direct contact, and it already has between certain species
of animals. (Weinartl et al. 2012) However, genetic mutations are random and even if it
would happen to occur it would have to spread from a single source, meaning that
everyone with existing symptoms would not automatically become contagious through
airborne means. So, in conclusion, the Ebola virus does have the capability to become
airborne, but whether it does or not depends on the chance mutation of its genome, and to
change the disease to become the prevalent type of transmission it would have to survive
and infect from its original source.

Works Cited

Cohen, E. (2014, October 6). Ebola in the air? A nightmare that could happen. CNN
Health. Retrieved October 9, 2014, from
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/12/health/ebola-airborne/

Dowell, S., Mukunu, R., Ksiazek, T., Khan, A., Rollin, P., & Peters, C. (1995).
Transmission of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: A Study of Risk Factors in Family
Members, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Journal of Infectious
Disease, 179(1), 87-91.
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/179/Supplement_1/S87.full

Ki, M. (2014). What do we really fear? The epidemiological characteristics of Ebola
and our preparedness. Epidemiology and Health, 36.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4153011/
Leroy, E., Kumulungui, B., Roquet, P., Hassanin, A., Delicat, A., Yaba, P., ... Swanepoel,
R. (2005). Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus. Nature, 438(575-576).
Retrieved October 9, 2014.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7068/abs/438575a.html

Pourrut, X., Kumulungui, B., Wittman, T., Massavou, G., Delicat, A., Yaba, P., ... Leroy,
E. (2005). The natural history of Ebola virus in Africa. Microbes and Infection,
7(7-8), 1005-1014.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1286457905001437
Weinartl, H., Embury-Hyatt, C., Nfon, C., Leung, A., Smith, G., & Kobinger, G. (2012).
Transmission of Ebola virus from pigs to non-human primates. Scientific
Reports, 2(811).
http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html