Monkeys Who Received Airborne Ebola Virus Died In 4-5 Days After Inhalation

Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus

There has been much said in recent weeks on whether or not the Ebola virus could be transmitted through the air. The CDC, the WHO and the Obama administration have doubled down on the party line that it is not possible to transmit through the air.

But after some diligent research this afternoon by the NTEB staff, we came across this paper of a study done with rhesus monkeys and the Ebola virus in 1995. We found it on the National Center for Biotechnology Information website, in the US National Library of Medicine. It is written in strong medical language, and uses technical terms.

Here is how their experiment to see if they could infect the monkeys with airborne Ebola wound up:

The potential of aerogenic infection by Ebola virus was established by using a head-only exposure aerosol system. Virus-containing droplets of 0.8-1.2 microns were generated and administered into the respiratory tract of rhesus monkeys via inhalation. Inhalation of viral doses as low as 400 plaque-forming units of virus caused a rapidly fatal disease in 4-5 days. The illness was clinically identical to that reported for parenteral virus inoculation, except for the occurrence of subcutaneous and venipuncture site bleeding and serosanguineous nasal discharge. Immunocytochemistry revealed cell-associated Ebola virus antigens present in airway epithelium, alveolar pneumocytes, and macrophages in the lung and pulmonary lymph nodes; extracellular antigen was present on mucosal surfaces of the nose, oropharynx and airways. Aggregates of characteristic filamentous virus were present within type I pneumocytes, macrophages, and air spaces of the lung by electron microscopy. Demonstration of fatal aerosol transmission of this virus in monkeys reinforces the importance of taking appropriate precautions to prevent its potential aerosol transmission to humans.

These studies were conducted at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, Maryland. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) was created on November 4, 1988, as a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NLM was chosen for its experience in creating and maintaining biomedical databases, and because as part of NIH, it could establish an intramural research program in computational molecular biology. The collective research components of NIH make up the largest biomedical research facility in the world.

Conclusion: The United States own medical research institute successfully proved that it is absolutely possible to transmit the Ebola virus through the air. The only difference in the transmission being that though the monkeys did die from airborne transmission they did not exhibit the bleeding that non-airborne Ebola patients exhibit. The paper went on to say that the Ebola virus is more easily transmitted in cold weather environments than a warm weather one, which would seem to indicate a factor limiting aerosol transmission in the African epidemics.

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