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Comment by jMyles | Hacker News Reader

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?

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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."

>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...

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

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