WHITFIELD: All right. Many of you have been tweeting your ebola questions to #ebolaqanda. Well next we re have an infectious disease specialist from the Emory School of Medicine here to answer your questions up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: This morning many of you have been tweeting questions about ebola to us here at CNN. #ebolaqanda.
Dr. Marshall Lyon is an infectious disease specialist at Emory University. And back in August he treated Dr. Kent Brantly when he was the first ebola patient to be flown back to the U.S. for treatment Emory University Hospital.
Dr. Lyon is going to be with us throughout the hour to answer your questions about that. So before we get to some of those questions, let me ask you about Thomas Duncan and the treatment he is likely receiving in Texas, in Dallas. Of course, he didn't get the Z-Mapp like Dr. Brantly and even Ms. Writebol received before receiving treatment at Emory University Hospital.
There was another patient who was getting treatment in Nebraska. He had a transfusion from Dr. Brantly. What's different about Mr. Thomas Duncan's case and treatment?
DR. MARSHALL LYON, EMORY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Well, my understanding is the mainstay of treatment is supportive care. So making sure that the fluid balance is correct. With a lot of vomiting and diarrhea this can be tough to manage. Making sure that the electrolytes or the salt balance is maintained. Correcting any bleeding orders that might happen and making sure that the blood product -- so platelets, red blood cells are in balance as well and don't get too low. That is the primary focus of it.
The question of experimental treatments like Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol got. You know, whether those are available or not -- I don't know at this point in time whether they are available to Presbyterian Hospital.
WHITFIELD: So when we hear from the White House yesterday where we had a number of representatives of various public healthcare for the U.S. say that every hospital in the country has the potential for isolation care. If a patient were to be diagnosed with ebola, they can go to any hospital in the country and receive the right kind of care and isolation without putting other patients in jeopardy?
LYON: They should. Hospitals all across the country can isolate patients for any number of reasons. We isolate them for different organisms -- tuberculosis, chickenpox, MRSA -- those are things that are probably fairly familiar to most public. But Ebola obviously is a little special but isolation principles are still in play and any hospital ought to be able to implement those.
WHITFIELD: Ok. So let's now entertain some of those questions coming from our viewers. First one being, "If someone with ebola has been somewhere before you, say a plane or a bathroom, how long can ebola live on a surface?"
LYON: Despite the severe disease that ebola can cause in humans it is a really wimpy virus it. It does not last for very long on environmental surfaces at all. So at most -- 30 to 60 minutes before it is dead.
WHITFIELD: So why is it so lethal then?
LYON: Well, it's lethal because of what it does inside the body and the body's response to the virus. As the immune system ramps up it releases a lot of these things called cytokines, and those cytokines are what cause fever, leaky blood vessels, drop in blood pressure and that is why it's so fatal.
WHITFIELD: The other question from a viewer that was tweeted to us, "What kills the virus?"
LYON: Alcohol kills the virus, soap and water.
WHITFIELD: You mean like a rubbing alcohol.
LYON: Yes. Or those like, you know, no endorsement here, Purell, those hand antiseptics, soap and water will kill it, bleach kills the virus. It's actually pretty easy to kill.
WHITFIELD: And those seem like things that are very accessible here in the States and perhaps why in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, there was a lack of that kind of supply and so that helped with the spread?
LYON: Absolutely and not every place has running water in those countries that you just mentioned whereas here in the United States, we have running water all over the place. We also have soap and bleach and alcohol hand rubs are very accessible to most Americans. Not accessible in West Africa.
WHITFIELD: And another question that we received via tweet. "When do ebola symptoms start? And what are they?"
LYON: Ebola symptoms typically start anywhere from -- we say the range is 2 to 21 days. Most often it is 6-11, 6-12 days in that range after exposure. And the most common symptoms up front are fever and headache and muscle aches -- so very nondescript. Many people describe this as flu like. However you have to have that exposure to someone who's had ebola. So for the vast majority of Americans, if they develop a fever at this point in time, no exposure to someone with ebola.
WHITFIELD: I think that is why so many are nervous because a lot of the symptoms you describe sound like it could be a cold, it could be a flu, it could be any number of viruses that people are typically used to. Especially as we enter the fall and winter months.
LYON: Absolutely. And that exposure is key. And it has to be someone who is sick with ebola. The person who has ebola is not infectious until they develop symptoms. And there is not secondary transmission, like I know someone who knows someone who had ebola. That is not being exposed.
WHITFIELD: It has to be direct.
LYON: Direct exposure. WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Marshall Lyon, thanks so much. We're
going to be back a little bit later on in the hour. He is going to answer more questions that are coming in via tweet. Remember you can tweet your questions for Dr. Lyon to #ebolaqanda and we'll try to get on as many as we can. Thanks so much.
