Changing vectors in viruses.

The_Minister

Just out of interest.

How easy is it for a virus to change vectors?
Could Ebola become air borne? Could HIV?

genegenie

The_Minister wrote: »

Just out of interest.

How easy is it for a virus to change vectors?
Could Ebola become air borne? Could HIV?

"A vector is an organism that does not cause disease itself but which transmits infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another." From Wikipedia

Do you mean how easy is it for a virus to change modes of transmission? [/pedant]

For airborne transmission to occur, I think the virus would have to infect the upper respiratory tract.

Although I believe that airborne transmission of ebola was documented between monkeys in a research lab.

To be honest, I'd be more worried about H5N1 avian influenza evolving aerosol transmission than either of the other two. It's entirely possible that H5N1 could do this very quickly via reassortment between it and a human influenza virus (antigenic shift). This could happen in pigs, as pig tracheal cells have both human and avian sialic acid receptor linkages. This could allow both human and avian influenza viruses to infect the same cell, where they could reassort or swap RNA segments.

In Asian wet markets, pigs and poultry are intermixed, providing the ideal circumstances for a reassortment event to occur.

What really scares me, is that the 1918 "Spanish" influenza pandemic had a 2% mortality rate and yet killed something like 50 million people. So far H5N1 has greater than 50% mortality. Of course it could lose some of its virulence during a reassortment event, but if it didn't... :eek:

The_Minister

Apologies for the misuse of "vector".

Yes, I mean how easy is it for a virus to change modes of transmission.