I really see the strong, immediate pushback against this idea as mainly an attempt to calm the lay audience. Ebola has been airborne in other species before, and it's very nearly airborne in humans - this is certainly not a virus like HIV where even unprotected sexual intercourse has a low infection rate - we've got a huge number of infected doctors and healthcare workers, and there are calls for this to be treated like SARS:
"Infection control concerning EVD is not working, especially when more than 240 [now 300] healthcare personnel have been infected, and more than 120 workers have died. Guidelines used to control SARS in 2003 should be used, not "contact and droplet protection of 1-2 meters," as is still recommended by WHO.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) for contact and airborne infections should be used because of
a) respiratory symptoms,
b) a big distance -- up to 9 meters -- for droplets when coughing and sneezing (Bourouiba et al. J Fluid Mechanics 2014;745:537-563.),
c) re-aerolization from the environment, bed clothes etc.,
d) long survival of the virus outside the body, and
e) high lethality.
Healthcare workers (HCW) and helpers should be protected with PPE as they were during the SARS epidemic."
http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20140914.2773490
The real question is more like, will Ebola mutate to be more airborne than it already is?
"Infection control concerning EVD is not working, especially when more than 240 [now 300] healthcare personnel have been infected, and more than 120 workers have died. Guidelines used to control SARS in 2003 should be used, not "contact and droplet protection of 1-2 meters," as is still recommended by WHO.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) for contact and airborne infections should be used because of a) respiratory symptoms, b) a big distance -- up to 9 meters -- for droplets when coughing and sneezing (Bourouiba et al. J Fluid Mechanics 2014;745:537-563.), c) re-aerolization from the environment, bed clothes etc., d) long survival of the virus outside the body, and e) high lethality.
Healthcare workers (HCW) and helpers should be protected with PPE as they were during the SARS epidemic."
http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20140914.2773490
The real question is more like, will Ebola mutate to be more airborne than it already is?