Professors at the University of Illinois in Chicago assert that the Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via “infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients,” suggesting that the current understanding of Ebola only being communicable via direct contact is inaccurate.
In a piece published by CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, authors Dr Lisa Brosseau and Dr Rachael Jones highlight how Ebola currently has “unclear modes of transmission.”
“We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks,” states the article.
Making reference to “controversy about whether Ebola virus can be transmitted via aerosols,” the authors assert that the current understanding that Ebola can only be transmitted by by direct contact with virus-laden fluids is “incorrect and outmoded.”
The authors note that US health professionals currently tackling Ebola are being put at risk because of the failure to offer them proper “respiratory protection,” making reference to hundreds of fatalities of Ebola health workers in West Africa due to facemasks or surgical masks which offer “very minimal protection from infectious aerosol particles.”