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Comment by andrewchambers | Hacker News Reader

I personally would be concerned if I was sat next to that person on the flight back home. Even if the fear is unrealistic.

Don't tell me you would happily sitting and eating next to someone with confirmed ebola for 8 hours plus, because they haven't started showing symptoms at that very moment.

I would at the very least go to a doctor to be sure.

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The Director of the CDC just said in the press conference that the person with Ebola didn’t have any symptoms until a couple days after they arrived.

They departed on the 19th of September, arrived on the 20th, showed first symptoms on the 24th, sought care on the 26th, were admitted to the hospital and isolated on the 28th.

As the Director emphasised again and again, Ebola is only transmittable when you are showing symptoms. There is only the window between the 24th and 28th when the patient with Ebola could have realistically infected anyone, so people travelling along with them aren’t affected. Any people they did have contact with will be monitored for the next 21 days.

Any KNOWN people they did have contact with will be monitored for the next 21 days.

4 days loose is quite a reasonable amount of time to infect others. If they had been using public transport or being in densely populated events e.g. attending a concert/conference it could be quite a lot. I guess we wont know for a couple of weeks. Here's to a functioning health system, a bit of luck.

...because during the flight you'd exchange bodily fluids? Or something?

Even if you had, they weren’t contagious at that point. Sigh.

Even if that is true, would you be happy about the unnecessary risk.

Only after it already happened they confirm if it is safe.

On a global safety issue it isn't a problem, but on an individual level, it is scary.

> Only after it already happened they confirm if it is safe.

The passengers were screened for fever before boarding the plane. On the individual level there are thousands of better things to worry about.

It's not an unnecessary risk, because "risk" requires there to be some chance of danger. Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms appear, thus there was no risk at that stage.

Well people do tend to spit in minuscule amounts when they speak. The person could also cough and throw spit around. It wouldn't be entirely impossible to contract it by sitting near someone for several hours.

Are you suggesting an ebola sneeze is a rare or harmless thing? That is the primary means of transmission.

I honestly did not know that. I thought that for a pathogen to be communicable by sneezing made it "airborne," and that Ebola was not.

I can't immediately find a source for your claim that sneezing is the "primary means" of transmission - can you provide one?

From the CDC: "Unlike respiratory illnesses like measles or chickenpox, which can be transmitted by virus particles that remain suspended in the air after an infected person coughs or sneezes, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of a person who has symptoms of Ebola disease."

There is a difference between walking through a cloud of sneezed particles, and sitting and sharing an armrest with someone for an extended period of time.

Though apparently this person wasn't infectious at the time as has been pointed out.

People can be exposed to Ebola virus from direct physical contact with body fluids like blood, saliva, stool, urine, sweat etc. of an infected person and soiled linen used by a patient.

--WHO

>I thought that for a pathogen to be communicable by sneezing made it "airborne,"

You're not the first nor the last to be tripped up by that. Airborne means that the pathogen can survive for some time in extremely small droplets. If you are sitting right next to someone with a non-airborne pathogen you have two problems. First, you will be reached by bigger droplets. Second, virus in very small droplets will only be in that condition very briefly before reaching you, and wont have sufficient time to die.

http://www.pathogenperspectives.com/2014/08/debunking-airbor...

Would that include someone clearing their nasal passages? I saw someone doing that into their hand on a Manhattan subway last week.

You are sitting next to someone for 8 hours plus. They will wipe their nose, then put their hand on the arm rest. Then you will proceed to do the same, and eat food at the same time.

I'm not saying it's likely to infect you, I'm saying this would cause personal distress, even if it is unlikely or impossible.

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