I'm not even sure why I read this thread, this sort of stuff i usually skip -- maybe I sensed someone mentioned my name. ( for srs.)
Anyway. Let's talk about virsues! Not INTELLIGENT VIRSUES such as that pretty hilarious game in which a human being is controlling the mutation of the virus as it spreads across the globe (Thje entirety of Canada is now infecting with Goat Fever!). A virsu doesnt get all MAD that it didnt kill its host, realistically they want their hosts alive.
My speciality is radiation oncology; specifically pharmacokinetics, endlessly cutting slides on a cryostat, proteomics, western blots, immunohistochemistry, monoclonal antibody production, etc. I never really messed much with viruses. But let's take a look, cause the internet is cool, and it might dust off my archaic B.S. degree a little.
First: HIV is a retrovirus, which is different than your average virus. So can't really compare them much at all. But lets do it anyway. HIV will become inviable in the presence of air - oxygen. It's actually pretty hard to work with HIV, I know this cause the people downstairs had an HIV lab, end up with inviable retrovirus half the time. that's why it's "certain body fluids" -- not really. Its if it gets exposed to the air it'll die. So like an HIV patient spitting on you for example which is the usual omg threat, they'd need to spit like .. into your bloodstream. That's why it's difficult to spread. and air exposure is death to the retrovirus so that's why it is usually shared needles (as ppl draw some blood up and injects and redraw, etc, no air is getting into that needle chamber but the blood from the first person finding their vein (the flash) is still inside to some extent), sexual intercourse which is specifically absorbing membranes in such close contact that no air is in between them (throw salt on it - if you scream and cry and want to die instantly, thats an absorbing membrane. please, do no throw salt on your junk or femmejunk. just dont.) -- and even sex isnt a guaranteed "catch".
Ebola from what I'm finding so far, well, hemmoragic fevers of any kind is a bitch, there's a few types... if you look at this sheet from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/ebola-factsheet.pdf You'll see my specialities would only be able to find ebola after you survived from it, or died from it
States pretty flat out that is not airborne. I have always had this sort of a hole in my knowledge about the concept of an "airborne" virus anyway. A cold for example isn't actually AIRBORNE. You touched something that someone sneezed on, or they sneezed on you and eventually the viral particle makes its way to a mucosa... virsues dont have wings, they dont fly around on the wind or any such nonsense, the best I'm imagining and I have NOT researched this - is that the virus develops the capacity to remain viable while not immersed in a biological fluid - in other words, it can dry out, get wet again, and still be able to replicate. this wouldn't be a simple flipswitch genetic mutation but a full-length panorama of changes to make it a completely different virus when it's done. It's basically changing the entire conformation to make it armored. That's a lot of DNA coding that needs to land exactly in the right place. As often as viruses mutate to get meaner they also mutate to turn into little wusses or die out. Evolution does not always go UP.
Even then, an airborne virus (as we define them, such as colds and flus, etc) are preventable by following universal precautions if you wanna be really paranoid and wear a hospital mask around, and wear nitrile gloves all the time, or, generally the best way that doesn't make you like a freak is to just wash your hands and don't repeatedly touch your face during the day, etc. We had never spread a single cold in our lab if someone got sick -- not cause we were all in masks and gloves, but because the simple act of wiping down shared phones and door-knobs once a day or so and washing your hands before eating lunch or going out for a smoke pretty much ensured no one else got sick.
Now if you don't want to get ebola don't go near those couple of people who got it and start licking them, and you should be pretty safe.
And yes - unwashed salad is more dangerous. Its damp leaves in a bag from another country (usually) with different natural bacterial and viral flora than you're used to. They could also allegedly contain frogs. Most of us are usually already carrying viral packages, but we're asymptomatic because our bodies can fight them. A little sniffling cold I had that didn't even need OTC NyQuil got my husband (at that time my fiance') so sick with ashmatic bronchitis that he almost ended up in hospital during a 3 month visit to the States - and he the the usual man-type who never got sick at home. When he first moved here the first year he had about 3-4 majro colds adjusting to the "local flora", and every time I go to england, it is pretty much guaranteed I'm getting a cold, which is why i flu vaccinate every year now, so I can at least skip that horror story. My immune system is already beat to shit from my body being in chronic stress/pain, even a bus-ride locally if I dont use hand santizer after touching the hand-holds in the bus afterwards means I'm getting someone's cold.
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Topic: Did Someone Say Ebola? (Read 2492 times)