CDC officials have been saying that Ebola is difficult to catch, that you cannot catch it by airborne transmission, but only by direct contact with fluids from a symptomatic patient.
But multiple medical sources have noted that this is not true, that droplets sprayed into the air from such actions as coughing or sneezing, or indirect contact such as from a door handle, are possible sources of contaminant.
“If you are sniffling and sneezing, you produce microorganisms that can get on stuff in a room. If people touch them, they could be” infected, said Dr. Meryl Nass, of the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington, DC.
Nass pointed to a poster the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly released on its Web site saying the deadly virus can be spread through “droplets.”
“Droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose or mouth of another person,” the poster states.
Nass slammed the contradiction.
“The CDC said it doesn’t spread at all by air, then Friday they came out with this poster,” she said. “They admit that these particles or droplets may land on objects such as doorknobs and that Ebola can be transmitted that way.”
Dr. Rossi Hassad, a professor of epidemiology at Mercy College, said droplets could remain active for up to a day.
“A shorter duration for dry surfaces like a table or doorknob, and longer durations in a moist, damp environment,” Hassad said.
But after the CDC poster on the website was discovered and reported in the NY Post, the information was subsequently pulled off the CDC’s website.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Thursday yanked a poster off its Web site explaining how Ebola can be spread by contaminated droplets — from a sneeze for example — a day after The Post reported on the frightening revelation.
The fact sheet was taken off line, and a link that led to it a day before now sends viewers to a different page with a different message.
“The ’What’s the difference between infections spread through air or by droplets?’ fact sheet is being updated and is currently unavailable. Please visit cdc.gov/Ebola for up-to-date information on Ebola,” it read Thursday.
Officials with the CDC remained mum on the issue, refusing to respond to questions for the original story and again on Thursday.