My uncle is a farmer in Great Britain. He has 300+ acres of his own
and runs the home farm for the local lord, over 1000 acres in all.
The stepping into disinfectant thing is a proven way to reduce
transmission of the virus. Yes, it's airborne but airborne viruses
can still stick to things and be carried that way. My uncle built a
shallow pool out of concrete for the main drive for use during hoof
and mouth outbreaks--it's filled with disinfectant solution during
times of outbreaks and every vehicle entering the farm has to drive
through it. He's never had an outbreak of foot and mouth and he
hopes never to have one.
Dee Dee Williams wrote:
> If someone did manage to by pass those safeguards and visit an affected
> farm, by the time they returned to America, they would have washed their
> hair and body several times. Their clothes would also have been washed,
> etc. The pathogen is a virus, which are delicate critters. It doesn't take
> much to kill them. The chances of one surviving the trip from the UK to
> here, and surviving the bathing/showering/laundering process is nil.
Sorry, your suppositions are wrong here. Some viruses are quite
delicate (HIV, for instance). Some viruses are tough critters that
are incredibly difficult to kill (Hepatitis C, for instance).
An example of the difference: if you took 10ml of blood from someone
infected with HIV and mixed it with 10,000 gallons of water
chlorinated as for a swimming pool, then injected 10ml of that
solution into another human being, there is *no* chance that person
would be infected with HIV--the chlorinated water would kill all HIV
present long before it was injected into a human being and the viral
load would not be enough to cause an infection.,
If you took 10ml of blood from someone with Hepatitis C and mixed it
with 10,000 gallons of water chlorinated as for a swimming pool,
then injected 10ml of that solution into a different human being,
chances are very very good that person would contract Hepatitis C
(better than 50% chance). The virus is not killed by chlorinated
water, it isn't killed by difference in ambient temperatures and the
viral load level needed for infection is thousands of times less
than that for HIV.
HIV can't be passed from one person to another via shared
toothbrushes or combs. Hepatitis C *can* be transmitted from one
person to another via shared toothbrushes or combs.
As far as I can tell, no one seems to know how delicate or hardy the
virus that causes foot and mouth disease is. If it's the equivalent
of HIV, then the precautions of showering and washing clothes would
work. If it's the equivalent of Hepatitis C, such precautions would
*not* be enough (Hep C can even survive an autoclave machine on
items that have not been prepared properly).
Shirley
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