As the Ebola crisis surges on, killing more than 3,800 people in West Africa and infecting at least 8,000, experts are warning that the virus could mutate and become airborne. That would mean Ebola could be contracted by simply breathing in the virus.
Presently, the deadly virus is only transmitted through contact with bodily fluids, such as saliva, semen, sweat, blood, urine, vomit, or feces of an infected person displaying symptoms. However, several leading Ebola researchers haven’t ruled out the virus mutating and becoming airborne.
Dr. CJ Peters, who researches the virus for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the Los Angeles Times, “We just don’t have the data to exclude it.”
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Virologist Dr. Philip Russell, former head of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, commented: “I see the reasons to dampen down public fears. But scientifically, we’re in the middle of the first experiment of multiple, serial passages of Ebola virus in man. God knows what this virus is going to look like. I don’t.”
Experts have warned that viruses similar to Ebola are notorious for replicating and reinventing themselves, and that public health officials are reluctant to share their concerns.
Meanwhile, health officials are asking male Ebola survivors to abstain from sex or to wear condoms for up to 90 days, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus through sexual transmission. The virus typically takes up to 21 days to run its course through the body, but can last in semen for up to three months. The virus can be spread through unprotected sex.