Catching Ebola via inanimate objects is extremely unlikely.

[messyisthenewtidy]

I have been wondering this myself because whilst experts are saying that direct contact with bodily fluids is required for transfer of ebola, they are also fiercely incinerating passports and fumigating apartments. So I found this on a BBC article about plane risk and thought I'd share:

How Ebola spreads
The virus "is ferocious in the body but it is a wimp when it is on an inanimate surface", he adds. "As soon as it has arrived on the inanimate surface it has started to die off."

On inert surfaces, the virus does not last for long - "I would imagine no more than a few minutes", according to Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University. The exception would be "if you see visible blood or visible secretion".

Which is from this article
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29636355

SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: The virus can survive in liquid or dried material for a number of days (23). Infectivity is found to be stable at room temperature or at 4°C for several days, and indefinitely stable at -70°C (6, 20). Infectivity can be preserved by lyophilisation.

Taken from here

He would imagine? So he doesn't really know at all. As well as the study linked above I can think of 2 recent infections where it is thought to have been transmitted through surfaces. the nbc cameraman had no contact with any infected people, but he did clean a car which had been used to transport a patient and a doctor in Nigeria had no contact with Patrick sawyer besides a quick chat during which she touched a bag of iv fluids that he had been holding.

The sneeze advert for Swine Flu is unfortunate because although 'flu virus is propelled out in droplets by a infected person - and some people can excrete 'flu virus without getting ill themselves - it is mostly caught when it floats down onto a surface which is then touched by someone else who lifts virus up to their face and by rubbing their nose, eyes or biting a nail deliver it to the precise cells which it needs to hijack! Influenza and cold viruses are so adapted to humans that they use us to infect ourselves and each other. (It is Foot & Mouth Disease - the most infectious virus known to human and animal medicine that can be blown on the wind considerable distances).
Ebola might be a 'bodily fluids' virus like HIV/AIDS but it is a messy destructive disease in humans as we are not its natural host. Infected people vomit, have diarrhoea, and bleed profusely (though some more than others depending on which type of cell the virus hijacks first). Unlike 'flu it can access many different types of human cells. In fact it is more like 'flu - being picked up on the skin and it doesn't have to be given a lift to the front door like colds and 'flu. So actually it is more dangerous. However the current advice that only those who are ill shed virus - if true - is a saving grace! If we avoid contact with those who are ill we should be OK. Mr Duncan was brave enough to drive a pregnant relative around trying to find her a hospital bed remember...
But as soon as you accept that immediately the alarm is that people will be told to abandon family members and friends once they are ill or be almost certain to catch Ebola themselves. As soon as the two dozen Biohazard ITU beds in the UK are full we will have to nurse at home or...
We really need to learn as much as possible about our enemy if we are all to be soldiers in this battle rather than helpless victims. Our weakness is that we are always touching things and regularly touching our faces - just watch any group of people for a while. In winter we are pretty covered by clothes so our eyes, mouth and nasal membranes are our vulnerable area.
The chaos an outbreak, let alone an epidemic, would trigger (remember the FFA Fuel Blockade in 2000?) will impact on our infrastructure - food, fuel and medical resupply so getting more than 28 days on essential meds will be vital for those who depend on heart regulation, diabetes; arrangements for home dialysis are barely underway in this country, pregnant women will want to check their area's plans for maternity and midwife care - hopefully at alternative sites as hospitals will be dangerous no-go areas swamped with virus. We are told the Civil Servants have this all sorted but if you read some of their plans published online they have very little detail, few scenarios and sort of end after the first 10 days. It will be those in positions of authority who will have to make the hard decisions; or whomever stays in post when the highly paid guys have done a bunk with their families. Hopefully we will contain any Ebola but influenza is a virtual certainty alas.

you'll be posting from your underground bunker then Carlanet?

I have an underground bunker

I read that the virus could remain infective for hours - 9 at least.

It does make you wonder about public loos etc at airports.

UNICEF are taking donations by mobile phone tonight. I hope we receive more if these campaign texts as it makes donating easier and more effective.

Hopefully we will contain any Ebola but influenza is a virtual certainty alas

but hold on!
you wrote a long essay describing the end times as ebola decimates civilization, but actually you think we'll get it under control only to be all annihilated by flu??

please clarify, I need to know what to stock my bunker with

I read that too, Rooner; I'd be v worried if I were a cleaner at an airport or affected hospital. I've not heard anything about training them

Most experts agree with the theory that we are well overdue a major pandemic, and that flu is likely to be the culprit. I sincerely doubt Ebola has the ability to cause one, but for flu it's a walk in the park.

Influenza is at the moment more likely to cause a pandemic because it is airborne. If when Ebola mutates so that it is also airborne you can PYHBYKAKYAG.

experts are usually talking out of their arses when it comes to predictions, you see no matter how much of an expert you are predictions are notoriously hard to get right...especially ones about the future.
There are just too many variables interacting in complex and unpredictable ways.
Not to mention those pesky 'unknown unknowns'

C'mon, when did any experts ever make any accurate predictions?

I think it depends greatly on the location of the surface. At one extreme, a mattress cover in an ebola ward in Liberia is not going to be safe. At the other, a soft cushion at the top of a kid's soft play is not going to be accessible to anyone sick with ebola. The middle ground is where people in the very early symptomatic stages have touched a surface with sweaty hands.
When your look at the Liberian man in Texas, none of his family caught ebola despite lots of contact whist he was in the early stages. It is right at the end that it is really infectious. If it was super infectious early on, it would have spread far quicker. I think if you drew a graph of how likely the virus could be transmitted via a surface over time, the risk would be minuscule early on, rising higher at the end.
In West Africa, each case has infected roughly two others. This is even with poor medical supplies and risky funeral practices and entire families living single rooms.
I've read a lot of survivors stories. I know it's only anecdotal, but every one of them had been in direct contact with a visibly sick person or was a health care worker.
I don't think it's impossible to catch ebola from a surface a carrier touched hours before, but I think it is almost infinitesimally and not worth worrying about in the grand scheme of things.

It's worth looking at this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2144409-Ebola

and in particular QueenStromba's post on 9 August about mutuation in viruses and why this does not mean it will become airbourne.