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Comment by kenjackson | Hacker News Reader

There was an Ebola documentary on PBS a few nights ago and one of the people noted that he touched a need and that's how he contracted Ebola.

People have likened Ebola to HIV, but HIV does not transmit this easily. Even during seroconversion (which is when you might get vomiting and such with heightened viral load) I've never heard of anyone contracting HIV in a hospital.

I feel like the information on transmission has been poor. For example, is skin a barrier for the virus?

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"is skin a barrier for the virus"

We don't know. It's strongly suspected broken skin is not a barrier.

I'd expect broken skin isn't, but what about intact skin? With HIV we can answer a bunch of questions about transmission. With Ebola I can answer very few. I think this increases the anxiety.

Well, we're about to learn a lot more, if that's any consolation.

It absolutely does. I think the problem is that the virus can live on a surface in bodily fluids for a long time, or a dead body for days.

So you touch the surface with the virus then you wipe your nose, rub your eyes, eat with your hands.... and you could get infected.

    is skin a barrier for the virus?

On Sky News earlier today an expert was saying that intact 'regular' skin is indeed a barrier, but that thinner types of skin such as that found inside the mouth, the eyes, and the nose is definitely not a barrier.

That's called "mucosa" in medicine. It's more absorptive than skin and often prone to micro-trauma. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucous_membrane

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