One of the problems is that we don’t know. It might be environmental contamination (eg deposits on grass or in soil). Ebola patient 0 was thought to be a toddler-aged child who ate a piece of fruit that had been contaminated by dung from an infected bat (Ebola, like many of our diseases, is zoonotic). It’s also thought to potentially come from preparing meat from an infected animal. If it’s in the environment, it may also come from some social behavior, like grooming or wound cleaning. Could it be transmitted by parasites that jump from host to host drinking blood? No idea. I’m just spitballing based on how some other diseases become density dependent.
Prions are absolutely fascinating. I really hope they make a lot of progress.
Thanks for the ELI5.
Apart from ingestion, are there any other known methods of transmission as far as prions are concerned?
One of the problems is that we don’t know. It might be environmental contamination (eg deposits on grass or in soil). Ebola patient 0 was thought to be a toddler-aged child who ate a piece of fruit that had been contaminated by dung from an infected bat (Ebola, like many of our diseases, is zoonotic). It’s also thought to potentially come from preparing meat from an infected animal. If it’s in the environment, it may also come from some social behavior, like grooming or wound cleaning. Could it be transmitted by parasites that jump from host to host drinking blood? No idea. I’m just spitballing based on how some other diseases become density dependent.
Prions are absolutely fascinating. I really hope they make a lot of progress.