We shouldn't underestimate it: Ebola is FAR more contagious than HIV or hepatitis.

[pnwmom]

And it has no vaccine or proven treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/questions-rise-on-preparations-at-hospitals-to-deal-with-ebola.html?_r=0

Ebola patients lose enormous amounts of fluid from diarrhea and vomiting, as much as five to 10 quarts a day during the worst phase of the illness, which lasts about a week. Doctors struggle to rehydrate them, replace lost electrolytes and treat bleeding problems. Some patients need dialysis and ventilators.

A concern for health workers is that as patients grow sicker, the levels of virus in their blood rise and they become more and more contagious. The researchers at Emory tested patients and found high levels of the virus in their body fluids and even on their skin.

At the peak of illness, an Ebola patient can have 10 billion viral particles in one-fifth of a teaspoon of blood. That compares with 50,000 to 100,000 particles in an untreated H.I.V. patient, and five million to 20 million in someone with untreated hepatitis C.

“That helped us to understand why, if this is only spread by body fluids, why it is more contagious than hepatitis A, B and C, and H.I.V.,” Dr. Ribner said. “It’s just that there’s so much more virus in the fluids they put out.”

[loudsue]

1. What about that breakthrough that AIDs treatment stops the Ebola virus?

That just came out last week....patients treated with AIDS medications were cured of Ebola. I haven't heard another word about it.

[kestrel91316]

4. If somebody does a controlled study of it, then sit up and take notice. Otherwise,

sadly, it's just anecdotal reporting.

[pnwmom]

5. It's not a breakthrough yet -- the NIH is considering studying it. Also, it can cause liver damage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/02/a-liberian-doctor-is-using-hiv-drugs-to-treat-ebola-victims-the-nih-is-intrigued/

Gorbee Logan, a doctor in rural Liberia, has given at least 15 Ebola patients lamivudine, which is considered a long-term and effective drug to treat HIV patients. All but two of them survived, Logan told CNN last week.

Since that interview, Logan has been in contact with Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about the treatment. "I can't say it's a good idea or bad idea," Fauci told The Post this week. "It's one of those things where you're in a situation where you have no therapy, so you look for things that might be available."

Fauci said National Institutes of Health researchers have tested lamivudine's reaction to Ebola in test tubes. There was no response; but Fauci said researchers will adjust some levels and try it again "to see if there's even slight activity against Ebola."

If there is, he said, NIH would consider going to the trial stage.

SNIP

[closeupready]

2. Yes. It takes only a few virons to infect someone.

It is very, very contagious.

[kestrel91316]

3. Even rabies, which is terrifying, only has that nasty 100% mortality rate if you don't get

PEP in a timely manner.

There's no vaccine or PEP for Ebola. And no specific therapy. And infection requires only 1-10 virus particles.

10 billion virus particles in 0.2 tsp (3cc) = 3, 300,000 virus particles in 0.3 cc (literally 3 drops).

Enough to infect every single person in the US in 3 drops. Ponder that and tell me it's nothing to worry about.

[melm00se]

6. interesting article

on the contagiousness of Ebola vs. other viruses

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/10/02/352983774/no-seriously-how-contagious-is-ebola

[pnwmom]

7. There are different ways to view it. But I'd much rather be in a room with someone

with contagious hepatitis or HIV than with Ebola in its contagious phase.

Wouldn't you?

[melm00se]

8. with all three diseases

based upon the current understanding of each disease's transmission methods:

Ebola
HIV
Hepatitis

as long as I am not in direct contact their bodily fluids, I don't believe that is a big issue.

Healthcare workers are a much higher risk of exposure as they handle sharps, blood samples and other bodily fluids than someone who is casually in the same room with an infectious patient.

[pnwmom]

10. But there's always the possibility of getting into contact with something they touched

before you came into the room. Something, if it's Ebola, with a couple billion virus particles on it.

And all it takes is one.

[melm00se]

14. (Warning: snark alert) there's always the possibility

of being hit by a bus walking across the street while going to visit a sick relative with Ebola.

My points are:

yes, ebola is a deadly dangerous disease
no, we should not panic (or by word or action create an environment of panic) over this disease.

If this disease has a contagious factor of, say, the common cold or chicken pox or some other common disease, I'd be worried.

But right now, more energy is better spent in finding a cure or limiting its spread in Africa than obsessing over the likelihood of catching this disease.

[pnwmom]

15. I'm not recommending panic, obsession, or false bravado.

I'm saying we should take it very seriously.

And I strongly agree with spending the money to help wipe it out in Africa.

[KentuckyWoman]

23. The grocery cart........

Rightly or wrongly........ A friend of my late sister, and now my friend, who lives in a neighborhood in Atlanta with people from all over the world that travel quite a bit to go visit family - conduct business etc is very nervous.

This is a black man with 4 children under 10 and a pregnant wife. He's trying to figure out how to avoid catching it from the gas pump or the grocery cart etc.

It only takes one....... you are right.

[HereSince1628]

31. How often does HIV or Hepatitis result in projectile vomiting and explosive bloody diarrhea?

Last edited Tue Oct 14, 2014, 05:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Sitting in a room with someone sounds benign, but the infected person may not be JUST sitting there.

[HockeyMom]

58. Brown vomit the same color (and smell) as the diarrhea

When my husband and children had some strain of a stomach flu years ago. In the bathroom. On the floors. In the beds. Mask? Could have used that myself just from the STENCH of cleaning it up. It was bad, bad, bad. I say that just from the cleaning up and not actually having it.

Sitting around them? lol

[HereSince1628]

61. Exactly, but what member of the HIV related illnesses or hepatitis does that?

I've know I've attended meetings and sat in lunch with HIV positive people.

Nothing dramatic went on with their digestive system...which isnt' to say some infection couldn't cause an HIV+ person to present with vomiting or bloody diarrhea.

[HockeyMom]

62. None

Yes, I have known and hugged friends who were HIV positive. My Dad vomited, and passed stools with, blood from an ulcer. Contagious? Not unless he had some other disease along with an ulcer.

One size does not fit all.

[FLPanhandle]

9. What about other risks?

Would you trade being in that room for a 100 mile drive? go outside for hike in the woods? go for a swim in ocean? take a medication prescribed by your doctor?

All those other things are FAR more likely to kill you than sitting in a room with an Ebola patient. Yet people think nothing of doing any of the above.

[pnwmom]

11. Not true. It is not hard to get Ebola from touching something that an Ebola patient

has touched. And you wouldn't know what the patient might have touched before you got there.

Like the small blanket that was laid on the chair in the Texas Christian E.R. when Duncan was there.

Touching that blanket, or the chair underneath, would be much more dangerous than taking a hike, or a drive, or a swim, or a prescribed medication.

[FLPanhandle]

12. No it isn't.

If merely touching something would confer the virus, then Duncan would have contaminated his family, many of the people he came in contact with, and passengers on his plane.

The hard fact is only one person who directly came in contact with body fluids became infected. Probably not by just touching but by touching and then getting inside their body by rubbing eyes or open wounds.

[pnwmom]

16. Merely touching something CAN transmit the virus, because it is very common to touch something

and then for your hand to inadvertently rub your eye, your nose, or a broken part of skin.

Your argument is the same as the one people used to make to say that cigarettes didn't cause cancer. "I've smoked my whole life and I didn't get cancer -- so that proves cigarettes don't cause cancer."

Wrong.

Cigarettes can cause cancer and touching something that an Ebola patient touched can transmit the disease, if there are still any live viruses on it (and they can last for hours outside of the body). If no one from that apartment gets Ebola, that will prove nothing -- except that they dodged a bullet.

And the incubation period isn't over yet.

[FLPanhandle]

18. Sorry, you are asserting the virus is easy to catch without any data

Every study shows it's not very contagious compared to many viruses and, yes, if no one catches it from just touching, it's a live test.

Show me one study (and Ebola has been around for a long time) that shows it to be spread as easily as say the flu or common cold. There aren't any because it's not.

This is a perfect example of someone panicking with no data, lots of COULD's, MAYBE's, etc.

The overall numbers for the virus backs up the fact it's not one of the easier to transmit viruses. Sorry to throw cold water on the scare mongering but the facts don't support you.

[closeupready]

20. Infectious disease experts say it's highly contagious.

That's better than some anonymous person on an internet board.

[FLPanhandle]

21. Give me a link to one controlled study

Not opinion articles but just one real study.

[closeupready]

24. Why should I do that?

[FLPanhandle]

25. Because the CDC and WHO disagree with your assertion

Let me quote one CDC real study (not some newspaper speculation)

"One CDC study has examined Ebola virus survival in a "real world" patient-care environment, the CDC said. In that one, researchers did not find either viral material (through DNA amplification) or viable virus (through culturing) in any of 33 samples collected from sites that were not visibly bloody."

[pnwmom]

36. Where is your link about that "one CDC study"? n/t

[kestrel91316]

39. Our friend knows nothing and has nothing. Except probably

a fondness for FauxNooz and Alex Jones.

[DeadLetterOffice]

49. The CDC references the study

...but doesn't have any more information on it in this piece:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/10/who-cdc-dissect-ebola-transmission-risk

[pnwmom]

53. The cited paragraph was taken out of context.

This is the paragraph that follows it:

"Based upon these data and what is known regarding the environmental infection control of other enveloped RNA viruses, the expectation is with consistent daily cleaning and disinfection practices in U.S. hospitals that the persistence of Ebola virus in the patient care environment would be short—with 24 hours considered a cautious upper limit," the CDC said.



IOW, with consistent daily cleaning and disinfection practices, the virus isn't expected to last on surfaces for more than 24 hours.

That certainly doesn't prove it's not highly contagious -- just that the risk can be reduced by consistent disinfection practices.

Are hospital waiting rooms disinfected every day? The waiting room in our local hospital has cloth chairs. I'd be happy to bet that it isn't disinfected every day.

[kestrel91316]

28. In addition to not knowing what fomites are, you don't know a thing about the ethics of

doing controlled human studies with lethal pathogens.

Wow. You really need to stop before the walls of that very deep hole you're digging collapse on you.

[FLPanhandle]

30. So you have nothing

I know who is digging a hole here and it's not me.

[kestrel91316]

38. Please cite your epidemiological credentials so i can decide whether

you are a terrible epidemiologist or just a garden variety ignorant fool.

[FLPanhandle]

40. PANIC PANIC PANIC

I've already shared the WHO and CDC studies.

Enjoy your scare mongering. You are quite the fool yourself.

[kestrel91316]

43. Oooohhh, you can cut and paste links!!!! Makes you the real expert.

Care to tell me again where you got your MPH? Maybe you found that on the intertubes, too?

You are dead wrong about Ebola, but then you are uneducated in anything having to do with pathogens or probably even basic biology. That much is glaringly obvious.

And your contempt for somebody with REAL credentials (that would be me) is very telling. Typical of the conservative, anti-science mindset.

[kestrel91316]

46. You also apparently flunked vocabulary 101 in First Grade.

Panic:pan·ic1
ˈpanik/Submit
noun
1.
sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior.
"she hit him in panic"
synonyms: alarm, anxiety, nervousness, fear, fright, trepidation, dread, terror, agitation, hysteria, consternation, perturbation, dismay, apprehension; More
antonyms: calm
widespread financial or commercial apprehension provoking hasty action.
plural noun: panics
"he caused an economic panic by his sudden resignation"
informal
a frenzied hurry to do something.
"a workload of constant panics and rush jobs"
verb
verb: panic; 3rd person present: panics; past tense: panicked; past participle: panicked; gerund or present participle: panicking
1.
feel or cause to feel panic.
"the crowd panicked and stampeded for the exit"
synonyms: be alarmed, be scared, be nervous, be afraid, take fright, be agitated, be hysterical, lose one's nerve, get overwrought, get worked up; More


That's a far cry from what I am doing, which is EDUCATION and CORRECTION OF MISINFORMATION, with a bit of EVIDENCE-BASED SPECULATION thrown in. I know these are all big words so it's clearly going to whizz past your head.

[Puzzledtraveller]

45. WHO says 10k new cases a week can be expected and upped the death rate to 70%

I'm going to defer to their judgement.

[closeupready]

64. If you draw from that finding that Ebola is highly contagious, I agree.

As do most infectious disease experts. Peace.

[DeadLetterOffice]

68. Highly infectious. High mortality rate. NOT highly contagious.

Different things altogether, those terms.

[closeupready]

73. For medical professionals, sure. For most of us, not much difference

between contagious and infectious. Peace.

[pnwmom]

34. Dr. Bruce Ribner, one of the infectious disease specialists at Emory,

one of the four special treatment centers for Ebola, says it is highly contagious. And he knows more about this than either of us do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/questions-rise-on-preparations-at-hospitals-to-deal-with-ebola.html?_r=0

At the peak of illness, an Ebola patient can have 10 billion viral particles in one-fifth of a teaspoon of blood. That compares with 50,000 to 100,000 particles in an untreated H.I.V. patient, and five million to 20 million in someone with untreated hepatitis C.

“That helped us to understand why, if this is only spread by body fluids, why it is more contagious than hepatitis A, B and C, and H.I.V.,” Dr. Ribner said. “It’s just that there’s so much more virus in the fluids they put out.”

[Chemisse]

56. I don't think anybody has EVER said it was as contagious as the flu or common cold.

We all know it is not airborne and that you have to be in contact with body fluids. But that could be sweat, mucous from their nose, water from their eyes.

We don't need to panic, but we do need to be educated about it.

[uppityperson]

22. 2 people touch a surface. You do so next, then rub your nose. You are more likely to

come down with the flu from the person with the flu, than ebola from the person with ebola who touched that surface.

The problem is not that it is so easy to catch, but if you do, you are in a shitload of trouble. And yes, that is medical jargon.

[kestrel91316]

47. Our friend has clearly never heard of fomites.

[HereSince1628]

32. You mean like, maybe, touching some part of the personal protection gear

as you disrobe to go off your nursing shift?

We don't call that CONTACT, we call that a BREACH OF PROTOCOL.


I think there was a memo on how to talk about that....

[HereSince1628]

52. Some of this is parsing technical views....a viral particle in the air

that doesn't go further than 6 feet isn't 'airborne' apparently not meeting "definitions".

But IT certainly could be being dispersed in fomites travelling through the air, upto that distance.

These sort of things smack common sense right between the eyes, but there may be good uncommon sense reasons for considering the distinction

A danger would obviously be that a person would think dispersal in the immediate 6 ft distance from a patient can't happen in particles moving through the air.

Hopefully no healthcare workers think in that vicinity of an ebola patient think that.

[kestrel91316]

54. We don't really think of dust motes as fomites. If it floats across the room, it's an "aerosol".

Fomites are things like doorknobs, phone receivers, other people's hands, that coffee cup you just set down, your pillowcase, your used kleenex. Etc etc etc ad infinitum.

[HereSince1628]

55. Not thinking of dust mote but, rather spittle, contaminated heavier than air exudates

that transport the agent and make it available away from a person.

I'll waive to your definition, because really, I'm not hung up on definitions, but I am aware of this 6 ft distance definition thing.

It's a consideration in designing experiments to test for 'aerosols'.

[kestrel91316]

57. Spittle is typically > 100 microns (I may be wrong on this) so doesn't float around.

Floaties are "aerosol" and "sinkers" are droplets. That's how I think of it.

With Ebola, IIRC, if it's in particles small enough to float, it dries out pretty much instantly and is rendered inactive (which is an irreversible process).

[HereSince1628]

59. Right and particles aren't always independent of 'stuff' on which they are expelled.

consequently when setting up experiments the 6 feet is apparently the minimum to trust transmission is "aerosol"

I was involved in this a while ago, as a grad student, evaluating viral infection between dogs. But I've seen similar stuff in methods sections of papers, including the single paper on aerosol spread of ebola.

[Yo_Mama]

63. There's a huge difference between the early stages and the later stages

In the later stages, the person has tremendously high levels of virus in their blood and other body fluids. A cough, tears, saliva, sweat. These patients are horrifically ill, they may be disoriented, and they may go through stages when they're vomiting or retching or coughing and spewing virus-infected droplets into the air.

In the earlier stages, it would generally be internal infections without superficial virus. It is very dangerous to be close to a severely ill Ebola patient without PPE. It's not dangerous at all to be around most of these patients in the early stages. The only risk would be intimate contact.

So I think you are both right and wrong!

The reason CDC guidelines call for immediate isolation of suspected patients is that, depending on the stage, they are potentially infectious to others:
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/infection-prevention-and-control-recommendations.html

Note that the patient is expected to be isolated in a room with a closed door and that control measures are supposed to be in place to prevent anyone without PPE from entering.

[Zorra]

13. Recommend. nt

[gratuitous]

17. And that is why

I have purchased an air-supplied respirator with full HEPA filters to accompany me wherever I go on the planet. Sure, I may be thousands of miles away from ground zero of ebola-land, and sure, the virus may not be transmitted through the air, and sure, I watch all the Fox News I can, but doggone it if I'm going to take that one in fifty skabillion chance!

I can't wait for next week, when I have an appointment to have my body covered in cosmoline.

[pnwmom]

29. Hardy har har.

The nurses who've gotten it don't think you're very funny, and neither do any of the other people on the front lines.

[kestrel91316]

48. [phone] 000

I know we disagree on a lot of this stuff, but you are absolutely correct and if you had been even firmer with this smackdown I would have applauded you.

[Rex]

19. ATM it would be foolish to just dismiss it off hand.

However, it would also be foolish to run out and buy ductape and plastic bags.

[Faux pas]

27. Not only more contagious

it kills faster. Scary shit, for sure.

[azurnoir]

33. CDC faq on ebola transmission

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html

[morningfog]

35. "At peak of illness." In other words, very infectious just before death.

Early on, the viral loads are low, and so is the infection risk.

This is why the 48 who had contact with Duncan before his isolation have not shown symptoms. This is why there will not be an "outbreak" in the US. We can isolate those who show symptoms before they are very infectious. The risk remains for the hospital workers, and hopefully the CDC will figure out what went wrong with Pham.

[JDPriestly]

37. Ebola is a real threat. We should not be treating it with such disdain and disinterest.

And the Republican cuts to the budget of the US government for the CDC and other cuts that are vital for the maintenance of our public health infrastructure could mean that ebola might become a threat in the US.

Think about the last time you flew on one of those extremely crowded airplanes to wherever you go. Ebola can spread from the skin of a patient, from the vomit, from the excrement or urine. We do not realize how often we come in contact with the bodily fluids of others.

I am going to begin to carry sterile wipes with me when I travel. I travel by train. Public restrooms are less than clean. In Europe little ladies used to sit in the restrooms. You paid them a tip and they kept the places clean. That does not exist here at least not in Union Station in Los Angeles, not in airports, nowhere that I visit. The once-a-day wipe with a mop is really not what we need now.

[Tumbulu]

42. I was thinking about wearing my weeding gloves out and about....I have lots of them

You know when I was a child people wore gloves in public places. The ability to recover from an illness using antibiotics was still pretty new. The vaccines were new, most that we have now were not invented yet....the old ways of protecting oneself in public involved things like wearing gloves, wearing hats with mesh to cover eyes and face a bit. They were all very stylish, but they also had a function.

We were trained never to touch anything in a public area without wearing the gloves and then we were not to touch our faces unless gloves were off and hands had been washed. My mother's family of 10 lost not one member during the Spanish Flu epidemic that killed so many around them. Oh they also ate a clove of raw garlic every day. But they rode busses and streetcars and went to school....they participated all sorts of public events in the city that they lived in.

These protocols have been forgotten. But they were once part of city life.

Perhaps they need to be reinstated.

[JDPriestly]

76. Good idea. I have skin problems and lots of surgical gloves. I think I will take them with me when

I might have to use a public restroom. My skin is more vulnerable than the skin of other people.

[hobbit709]

41. And far LESS contagious than flu, dengue, malaria, chikungunya, or even the plague.

[pnwmom]

50. Link, please. n/t

[hobbit709]

51. None of those need direct contact.

And if they develop an Ebola vaccine will you be against it because there might be mercury in it?

[pnwmom]

65. No. Though I would prefer that babies have a version, if possible, without mercury.

It's all a question of weighing possible risks vs. benefits.

[Puzzledtraveller]

44. You are souring the "everything is alright" meme!

[DeadLetterOffice]

60. It really isn't more contagious. Just much more lethal.

Compared with most common diseases, Ebola is not particularly infectious. The primary risk of catching Ebola comes from the bodily fluids of people who are visibly infected – primarily their blood, saliva, vomit and (possibly) sweat. These can transmit the disease if they make contact with the mucus membranes (lining of your nose, mouth, and similar areas).

Each patient in the current Ebola outbreak is infecting on average two healthy people (this figure, known as the R0 value, can be reduced with appropriate precautions). The Sars outbreak of 2002-03 had an R0 of five, mumps 10 and measles a huge 18. Ebola could be much more infectious than it is.

Which isn't to say that Ebola isn't a cause for concern among health care workers, it totally is. But there's enough accurate scary information out there; inaccurate scary information is unnecessary.

For those who haven't seen it, or would like to see it again:


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/09/ebola-highly-contagious-virus-myths-outbreak-epidemic
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/10/02/352983774/no-seriously-how-contagious-is-ebola
http://www.webmd.com/news/20140806/ebola-virus-how-contagious

[pnwmom]

66. That depends on how you define contagious.

If you define it based on how few viral particles are needed to infect someone (very few) -- and how many are contained in a tiny drop (billions) then it is highly contagious.

[DeadLetterOffice]

67. High viral load = highly INFECTIOUS, not highly contagious

Contagious specifically refers to ease of transference from one host to another. Highly contagious diseases tend to spread through the air; less contagious diseases require physical or blood/mucus contact. Ebola is not easily contagious.

Infectious refers to how much of a virus is required to transfer the virus to a new person. It doesn't take many Ebola particles to transfer infection, and there's lots of Ebola particles in very sick Ebola patients. So Ebola is highly infectious.

http://io9.com/how-ebola-can-still-be-very-infectious-without-being-v-1642322295

[pnwmom]

69. Dr. Bruce Ribner, one of the specialists on the infectious disease team taking care of Ebola

patients are Emory University hospital, is comfortable using the term "contagious" in this context.

“That helped us to understand why, if this is only spread by body fluids, why it is more contagious than hepatitis A, B and C, and H.I.V.,” Dr. Ribner said. “It’s just that there’s so much more virus in the fluids they put out.”


People want to think that because it is only spread by bodily fluids, like HIV, that it isn't very contagious. Not true. It is far more contagious than HIV because there's so much more virus in the fluids.

[Puzzledtraveller]

74. exactly, one droplet from a cough or sneeze can be enough

You can inhale/ingest a droplet from several feet away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2600044/The-slow-motion-video-reveals-sneezes-travel-far-thought-create-cloud.html

[longship]

72. And that's what R0 expresses. How contagious is this virus?

How many, on average, people are infected for each patient. R0 expresses the virus's contagiousness very well in one simple number. There's no need to count viral loads. It's all about how fast it spreads.



On edit: Fortunately, Ebola is its own worst enemy. It is so quickly deadly that there is little time for it to spread, not a particular good strategy for a virus. And one does have to come in direct contact with it to be infected. Unfortunately, Ebola patients spew out lots of bodily fluids full of the virus. Apparently, viral loads are extremely high. Not good as these things go. But if one is careful one won't be infected.

That African nurse student cared for four family members on her own, using plastic garbage bags, rubber gloves, and bottles of bleach, burning the refuse every night. Three survived Ebola, thanks to her, and I have not heard that she is infected. She made her own protocol. It worked. And all but one of her family survived.

[LisaL]

70. People don't seem to understand how to interpret R0.

R0 is the number of people one sick person infects during the duration of the disease.
Person infected with HIV has years.
Person infected with Ebola has days.
If you divide R0 by the unit of time, Ebola is much more infectious/contagious.

[DeadLetterOffice]

71. That is the dumbest thing I have read about R0.

Ever.
And given the idiocy that's been floating around here and elsewhere about Ebola, contagiousness, and infectiousness, that's saying something.

You cannot "divide" the R0 by average lifespan after diagnosis and get anything that's even vaguely related to "contagiousness." Seriously.

Facts are irrelevant and resistance is futile. I give up.

Wash your hands often, get your flu shot, and stay healthy.
Peace.

DLO

[LisaL]

75. Did you actually read the article?

I guess not. Read the last sentence.
And then get a clue.

"**The R0 is integrated over the time that a person is infectious to others. For HIV, this could be years. But for Ebola, that time is only about a week. So even though they have similar R0s, Ebola's infections per unit of time is much higher than HIV's."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/10/02/352983774/no-seriously-how-contagious-is-ebola