AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Survival of Ebolavirus in Aerosols
STEVE LEVER, Sophie Smither, Lin Eastaugh, Jackie Steward, Dstl Porton Down
Abstract Number: 308 Working Group: Environmental Fate of Infectious Aerosols
Abstract The recent ebolavirus epidemic in West Africa has confirmed previous knowledge that filoviruses are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates in humans, are capable of human-to-human transmission, via infected material such as blood and other body fluids and are believed to have low infectious doses for humans. In experimental animal model systems, filoviruses are able to infect via the respiratory route and are lethal at very low doses, but there is minimal information on how well filoviruses are able to survive within aerosol particles. There is also little known about how well filoviruses survive in liquids or on solid surfaces which is important in the management of patients or samples that have been exposed to filoviruses. In this presentation, data will be presented to show the relative survival of filoviruses in aerosols and the potential infectivity of filoviruses and the implications in epidemic situations.