Ebola can live for 3 weeks on plastic or glass

originally posted by: Violater1

originally posted by: Biotech2024

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: ~Lucidity

Agreed but something doesn't add up because if that was the case in the African cesspits were it is spreading at the moment if that was the case the infections would be in the millions by now.

The sunlight(UV radiation) and warmer ambient temp, kills viruses on exposed surfaces. That is why the flu is not as bad in tropical regions. The borders need to be closed before winter sets in.

Your partially correct about the Ultra Violet light. But, with Ebola, it is a RNA virus, it does not have Thymine to connect to Adenine, it has Uracil. Therefore the UV that causes Thymine dimers (which kink the DNA strand, preventing it to replicate) are ineffective to Ebola, which is single strand RNA using Uracil and NOT the Thymine/Adenine bond.

Here's cool paper on UV effects on RNA.

www.nature.com...

It's not just thymine..photodimerization of pyramidines.

a reply to: Violater1

It definitely seems like we're getting mixed messages regarding how long this virus is contagious and how it can be contracted. Just this morning I heard a doctor on CNN stating they have heard the virus could be active for 21 to 45 days! I keep thinking about the doctor that went to the restaurant to eat. Surely the bacteria had to be on his eating utensils, cup or glass. I can't imagine how concerned the waitress, bus boy and dishwasher who handled his dinner plates and utensils are feeling right now.

What gets me is now the CDC doesn't like the idea that NY, NJ an ILL are requiring automatic quarantines! They don't like the idea we're treating these aid workers like criminals. What? Being safe now than sorry later when the virus is out of control sounds like a much better way to prevent it from spreading than taking a lets wait and see attitude toward controlling it. These aid workers should be more understanding considering they have been up and close to the very same thing they were trying to control from spreading in Africa!

originally posted by: Biotech2024

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: ~Lucidity

Agreed but something doesn't add up because if that was the case in the African cesspits were it is spreading at the moment if that was the case the infections would be in the millions by now.

The sunlight(UV radiation) and warmer ambient temp, kills viruses on exposed surfaces. That is why the flu is not as bad in tropical regions. The borders need to be closed before winter sets in.

Agreed. All borders need to be closed. And all air traffic in/out Africa as well.

How many infections and deaths need to take place before our Commander-in-Chief does something about this?????

originally posted by: badgerprints

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
And up to six weeks, I'm sure I read somewhere, in the right conditions in a lab or less trafficked environment.

Yeah, this baby has some lifespan, which many "experts" are saying may even be longer in our cooler climate than it is in Africa.

Out of sunlight and a cool place is about all it needs to last a while.
I wonder if ebola has ever been loose in a cool environment with plenty of vectors.
I think it's only been loose in tropical countries so far.

I wonder what they mean by "cool?" How cold? Could Ebola survive in freezing weather? Below 32 degrees? Below zero?

Winters in NY State (esp. my part of it) can be very harsh. Even in NYC. Just think about a few Ebola-exposed individuals riding the subway train......and they sneeze/cough in a crowded car. Whoever is nearby them is likely to get sick and could pass it on to others.

People can give Ebola to others even if they're asymptomatic, but I did read they are even more contagious the longer they feel ill. This is the cold and flu season. How many people will be running around NYC with what they think is the beginning of a cold or flu but it will be Ebola instead?

originally posted by: dianajune
How many infections and deaths need to take place before our Commander-in-Chief does something about this?????

So far there have been four cases (two infections in the US, two imports), including one death. In the same period of time (one month), there have been about 51000 deaths due to heart disease, 47000 deaths due to cancer, 4700 deaths due to influenza or pneumonia, and 3000 traffic fatalities. And maybe a couple lightning fatalities yet to be reported.

www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov...
www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov...

Why should the President be more concerned about an extremely rare illness--you can count the cases on one hand--than the many tens of thousands of people killed by other diseases and preventable causes? What makes one ebola death more important than thousands of people ripped to shreds on the national highway system?

originally posted by: dianajune
I wonder what they mean by "cool?" How cold?

4 C (39.2 F) on glass and plastic. They could not recover any virus from metal at 4 C, or any of the tested materials at room temperature.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

originally posted by: Biotech2024

originally posted by: Violater1

originally posted by: Biotech2024

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: ~Lucidity

Agreed but something doesn't add up because if that was the case in the African cesspits were it is spreading at the moment if that was the case the infections would be in the millions by now.

The sunlight(UV radiation) and warmer ambient temp, kills viruses on exposed surfaces. That is why the flu is not as bad in tropical regions. The borders need to be closed before winter sets in.

Your partially correct about the Ultra Violet light. But, with Ebola, it is a RNA virus, it does not have Thymine to connect to Adenine, it has Uracil. Therefore the UV that causes Thymine dimers (which kink the DNA strand, preventing it to replicate) are ineffective to Ebola, which is single strand RNA using Uracil and NOT the Thymine/Adenine bond.

Here's cool paper on UV effects on RNA.

www.nature.com...

It's not just thymine..photodimerization of pyramidines.

Thank you,
Uracil is a pyramidines.
Even after researching the CDC funded UV program at Duke University,
www.cdc.gov...
It does not show that Ebola was killed by the UV-C(UV-C is blocked by our atmosphere, therefore, all bacteria and some viruses are susceptible). However, another article states that it was tested in Africa last August.
www.tru-d.com... Nothing has been written since than, that I can find.
I appreciate your thoughtful contribution
Unlike some of the feckless fodder found in many posts,
additions like yours add to the knowledge base of ATS and legitimize it's beneficence.
Please keep it coming.

originally posted by: FurvusRexCaeli

originally posted by: dianajune
I wonder what they mean by "cool?" How cold?

4 C (39.2 F) on glass and plastic. They could not recover any virus from metal at 4 C, or any of the tested materials at room temperature.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

Your comment is erroneous!
From your source:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
“There was no survival of MARV on metal surfaces in our study, contrary to the results recorded by scientists of the FSU (Belanov et al. 1996). The two studies were performed at different relative humidities, and this may have influenced the survival rates. In addition no details of the steel used in the study conducted in the FSU were provided, and therefore no details of any possible virucidal components within the metal were available. The lack of recovery of virus from metal substrates may be attributed to several factors; previous work (Sommer et al. 1999; Pawar et al. 2005) has shown the binding of micro-organisms to metal surfaces to be poor because of the high surface energy, high electronegative and hydrophilic properties of metal. Other research has also shown that positively charged metallic ions such as copper and silver have a high bactericidal activity (Friedman and Dugan 1968; Bitton and Freihofer 1977; Slawson et al. 1990) and hence by extrapolation may also have a high virucidal activity. Short survival times for several haemorrhagic fever viruses on metal surfaces have been observed; on aluminium discs, the time taken for the initial virus titre to decay by 90% for hantavirus 76–118, Sicilian virus Sabin and Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic (sic) fever virus was between 1·08 and 1·45 h (Sinclair et al. 2008).” So there it is, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever virus was between 1·08 and 1·45 hours. I would not feel comfortable grabbing a hand rail on a bus or subway train, knowing that Dr. Craig Spencer, had handled it. By the way, his condition is getting worse, I pray to G_D that this brave man gets better.
www.nytimes.com...

Additionally, the source that you provided states that “that low titres(sic) of virus could be recovered from samples suspended in tissue culture media and dried onto both plastic and glass until day 26, but only virus dried onto glass substrate was recovered by day 50, when stored at +4°C.” That’s 50 days at 39.2 degrees F!
This does NOT give me a warm fuzzy feeling when sitting next to the window of a plane, train, taxi, or bus.

a reply to: Violater1

This does NOT give me a warm fuzzy feeling when sitting next to the window of a plane, train, taxi, or bus.

Do you have a habit of licking windows?

a reply to: FurvusRexCaeli

You left out bee stings and shark attacks. I'm sure both have already killed more in the US than ebola has so far. The only problem with comforting yourself with these types of statistics is that they don't spread exponentially and have a 50-70% kill rate.

originally posted by: Violater1
Your comment is erroneous!

I don't know how you can say it's erroneous, when you yourself quoted the statement "there was no survival of MARV on metal surfaces in our study." First of all, the MARV discussion is orthogonal to the thread, which is about ebola, not Marburg. They addressed ebola virus thus: "Neither MARV nor ZEBOV could be recovered from metal substrate at any time." Secondly, even if we were to liberally interpret your MARV discussion as being applicable to ebola, it does not contradict my statement that "they could not recover any virus from metal at 4 C, or any of the tested materials at room temperature." I think you have misunderstood the referent of "they."

That’s 50 days at 39.2 degrees F!
This does NOT give me a warm fuzzy feeling when sitting next to the window of a plane, train, taxi, or bus.

If you ride around in plains, trains, taxis, and buses that are kept at 39 F, you are not going to be feeling warm and fuzzy, anyway.

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: Violater1



That is in ideal conditions though.

Ideal conditions like an apartment in ny that has been kept cool.

a reply to: FurvusRexCaeli The difference in the means of death you mention and ebola is the potential for spread if we ignore it and do nothing.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Violater1

This does NOT give me a warm fuzzy feeling when sitting next to the window of a plane, train, taxi, or bus.

Do you have a habit of licking windows?

I have licked a few window panes but i bet you know nothing about that.

originally posted by: hogstooth
a reply to: FurvusRexCaeli

You left out bee stings and shark attacks.

They're out of season.

I'm sure both have already killed more in the US than ebola has so far. The only problem with comforting yourself with these types of statistics is that they don't spread exponentially and have a 50-70% kill rate.

Neither does ebola. It has been transmitted to two people in the US, both healthcare workers who had close and continuing contact with a victim in the last stages of the disease. I suppose that's "exponential," but it's not interesting. Both of them recovered, evidently without transmitting the disease to anyone else. Add to that the medical evacuation cases, all of whom (to my knowledge) survived without transmitting the disease, and we aren't seeing exponential growth or a catastrophic fatality rate. The one person in the US who died of the disease had close contact with a sufferer in an epidemic area, and went untreated for weeks--not a typical scenario for most of the populace.

So far, no one has contracted the disease in the US from casual contact, or from trains, taxis, etc. No one who contracted the disease in the United States has died, nor have they spread the disease to anyone else. I don't think anyone medically evacuated to the US with ebola has died or transmitted the disease. The US is not west Liberia or Sierra Leone. Different culture, different infrastructure, better health care, better sanitation and nutrition, etc. There will probably be more cases, but it will remain a statistical blip.

And I am not comforted by the fact that thousands of people die of common preventable causes every month while the media fans panic over a disease that only one person in the US is actually confirmed to have.

a reply to: FurvusRexCaeli

all we have to go on is what they tell us and the reports are that each person with ebola spreads it to 2 other people and that the virus has a kill rate of 50-70%


sure we could just talk about us facts and say that in the us ebola has a kill rate of 100% of black males infected but that would be looking at the numbers falsely.

The virus is spreading out of control rapidly in other countries and the only country to stop it has closed their borders.

a reply to: deadeyedick

sure we could just talk about us facts and say that in the us ebola has a kill rate of 100% of black males infected but that would be looking at the numbers falsely.

Is it looking at numbers falsely to note that no one who came into contact with Duncan (other than the nurses) seem to have become infected? How many people were on the plane with him? Any of them sick?

The virus is spreading out of control rapidly in other countries and the only country to stop it has closed their borders.

The epidemic is growing in the region because of the low level of health care and the cultural practices of the region.

The US has not closed its borders and there is no indication that the virus is spreading here. Spain has not closed its borders and there is no indication that the virus is spreading there. The EU has not closed its borders and there is no indication that the virus is spreading there.

a reply to: Phage

false because the virus is spreading in the u.s.
not out of control yet but it has spread.
take into account that the us has the ability to control information and then it becomes a guessing game as to the real truth.
however i will say that if we just simply believe in what we are fed then everyone will be just fine.
I am not interested in word games with you. i get the fact that you like numbers and specifics but even you can not honestly deny that a few folks have been reported to have gotten ebola in the us and unnamed patients have been treated for the virus in the us.

for either of us to give an honest answer to the questions you posed about who has been infected in the us we would need to personally question all the contacts or trust the gov. and the cdc to be honest and i do not.

I do believe that we can stop it here. at least we have the chance too but you must take into account the spiritual powers in the mix and i am quite sure that you do not take them into account. there is a force that desires the virus to spread. some call it stupidity in people but i see it as something more sinister.


I think you can answer this for me. What percentage of americans would need to be sick at the same time in order for our medical forces in the us to be overwhelmed and unable to handle any more illness?

a reply to: deadeyedick

false because the virus is spreading in the u.s.
not out of control yet but it has spread.

No. It hasn't.

I am not interested in word games with you.

Right, you're interested in speculation and fear.

I think you can answer this for me. What percentage of americans would need to be sick at the same time in order for our medical forces in the us to be overwhelmed and unable to handle any more illness?

No. I can't answer that for you.

a reply to: Phage

so you are denying that duncan spread the virus to two nurses?

can you admit that the medical industry has a limit on how many people can recieve treatment at one time?