Tag: Infectious Disease

Current Events

The role of scientists

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Today in lab meeting, we took some time to talk about the ongoing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa and U.S. media coverage of the EVD cases in the United States. One issue that we discussed was the role of the scientific community in communicating accurate knowledge about the disease. I’ve seen news articles that suggest mis-information about the following two questions (my responses in italics):

  • Can EVD be transmitted like an airborne respiratory virus (eg. flu)? No, not that we’re aware of. Contact with bodily fluids is necessary of an infected patient is necessary.
  • Can EVD be transmitted by an individual who is not yet symptomatic (eg. already infected but not yet showing symptoms of that infection)? No, not that we’re aware of. We do not believe that they are shedding virus at this point in the course of disease.

I have a few questions of my own:

  • Why does EVD capture the imagination of the American news media in the manner of a panic-induced frenzy?
  • How can scientists inject nuance into the popular discourse about this virus and this disease?

I want to be cautious and responsible when I respond to questions about the way EVD is transmitted, but what if caution (See above — “No, not that we’re aware of”) incites unnecessary panic? Is it better to appear authoritative and neglect to include caveats to a statement? (“You can only catch the disease if you’re touching bodily fluids!”) I’m not sure which solution improves the situation. Is it the role of scientists to state facts (“We don’t know everything about EVD, but we believe it may only be transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual.“) or to divert the capricious attention of individuals to problems that are more likely to impact them (“You’re more likely to get flu than Ebola. Get your flu shot!”)? Another way to consider the role of scientists: Why is it important to inform the public, especially if their risk is low? Shouldn’t we spend more time educating health-care professionals that do have higher risks of contracting the virus?

I don’t know the best way to consider these questions, but I think that one role for scientists is to distill information from the original scientific literature. Studies are good at reporting their findings and obscuring their limitations. For those of us in the infectious disease field, we can proactively contribute to public knowledge about EVD through open discussion of existing knowledge. We can voice our opinions about a study’s validity and limitations while highlighting the utility of its findings.

For now, I’ll leave with a short compilation of references and links about the current outbreak, in no particular order.

  • Bellan, et al. (2014). Ebola control: effect of asymptomatic infection and acquired immunity. Lancet, Early Online Publication, October 16. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61839-0
  • WHO Ebola Response Team (2014). Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa — The First 9 Months of the Epidemic and Forward Projections. New England Journal of Medicine 371, 1481-1495. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1411100
  • Gire, et al. (2014). Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the
    2014 outbreak. Science 345 (6202), 1369-1372. doi: 10.1126/science.1259657
  • Towers, et al. (2014). Temporal Variations in the Effective Reproduction Number of the 2014 West Africa Ebola Outbreak. PLOS Currents Outbreaks, Sep 18. Edition 1. doi: 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.9e4c4294ec8ce1adad283172b16bc908.
  • Fisman, et al. (2014). Early Epidemic Dynamics of the West African 2014 Ebola Outbreak:
    Estimates Derived with a Simple Two-Parameter Model. PLOS Currents Outbreaks, Sep 8.
    Edition 1. doi: 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.89c0d3783f36958d96ebbae97348d571.
  • Althaus CL. (2014). Estimating the Reproduction Number of Ebola Virus (EBOV) During the 2014 Outbreak
    in West Africa. PLOS Currents Outbreaks, Sep 2. Edition 1. doi:
    10.1371/currents.outbreaks.91afb5e0f279e7f29e7056095255b288.

Surveillance data and projections:

Thoughts my own.