

The survival of filoviruses in liquids and solid substrates (2010) [pdf] - csdrane
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2010.04778.x/asset/j.1365-2672.2010.04778.x.pdf?v=1&t=i0zca0zk&s=53088f66e93770545aa22e10843fe9bcc6bbf12c

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allthatglitters
Quoting from the discussion section of this paper:

"Such data, obtained from experimental animal models, combined with the
aerosol decay rates determined in this study, would suggest that filovirus, at
infectious levels, may remain a potential aerosol threat for at least one and
a half hours. Epidemiological evidence, however, would suggest that during
outbreaks, filoviruses are rarely transmitted by the airborne route."

A bit disconcerting.

Let's hope that the "epidemiological" evidence is again borne out.

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cryptoz
HTML version:
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2010....](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2010.04778.x/full)

In case it's not clear why this is on HN's front page, there are simultaneous
outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg in Africa right now; this paper discusses their
ability to live on surfaces, something not widely understood in the current
Ebola outbreak but with huge implications.

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phkahler
Has the original link been censored? Or did the submitter have special access
and not realize it?

Even the abstract is probably something TLAs don't want widely disseminated
given the easy access to these viruses that is possible right now. They're
poor choices for weapons (you can't stop em), but there are crazy people out
there.

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otakucode
Ignorance is not what protects humanity from those crazy people.
Overwhelmingly, we are kept safe by the moral sense of people. No amount of
laws or control has ever proven effective at preventing crazy people from
wreaking havoc on large numbers of people. There simply is no one out there
who is waiting to find a virus that can be easily spread and have fatal
effects who is both capable of enacting such a plan or able to persuade those
who are capable to do so. The closest we have is in our militaries, who plan
these things and convince themselves of bogeymen hiding around every corner,
but even they often find themselves stopped by the moral sense of individuals.
We should have been annihilated in a large nuclear war in the 1980s a couple
times if not for the individual soldiers simply being unwilling to follow
protocol and be responsible for the deaths of millions.

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mlonkibjuyhv
Am I reading this correctly in that higher temperatures reduced survivability?
Anyone in a position to ease my mind about dust inside computer equipment from
isolation wards?

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hga
I haven't checked this paper, but what I've read independently, perhaps based
on it, is that's true.

In general just knowing it's an enveloped virus tells you a lot about its
ability to survive in the environment. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_envelope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_envelope)
which points out that the lipid bilayer stolen from the host cell " _is
relatively sensitive to desiccation, heat, and detergents, therefore these
viruses are easier to sterilize than non-enveloped viruses, have limited
survival outside host environments, and typically must transfer directly from
host to host._ " And this isn't something that's going to change with
mutations.

This is why we aren't freaking out more by the no protection pressure washing
of the index patient's vomit outside his apartment. It was sufficiently
delayed that the heat and UV from the sun almost certainly killed all the
Ebola viri in it. Of course that delay wasn't so good....

