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Top Expert: Ariborne Ebola Is “Not Far-Fetched”
Freedom Outpost
Scientists are now admitting that the Ebola virus could mutate into an airborne form and spread across the world.
David Sanders, associate professor of biological sciences at Perdue University, is one of those experts. His work on Ebola led to his participation in the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Biological Weapons Proliferation Prevention Program.
He told Newsmax Health:
“I don’t want to be an alarmist, but the possibility of Ebola becoming an airborne virus clearly has to be taken into account.
Ebola does share some of the characteristics of airborne viruses like influenza and we should not disregard the possibility of it evolving into something that could be transmitted in this way.”
Earlier this week, at a Congressional subcommittee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top White House infectious disease advisor, said it was very unlikely Ebola would mutate in a way that would make it transmittable through the air like flu:
“That’s not something I would put at the very top of the radar screen.”
Sanders disagrees:
“I want the facts to be clear. It’s important that we not get the idea that this can’t happen. When people say that it is impossible for this virus to mutate, this is simply not true.
To be airborne it must be present on tiny droplets from a cough or sneeze and must be able to live outside of the body for a certain length of time. This is not how the virus is currently known to spread, but it is evidence that it has some of the necessary components for respiratory transmission,” he said.
He explained that a key factor in the successful mutation of a virus centers on how it enters and exits the body. Sanders led a research team that established the Zaire form of the Ebola virus could enter the mucus-lined cells in the human airway much the same way the flu virus does.
Reposted with permission
