Felt like doing a bit more googling over morning coffee, this time I chose how small pox was transmitted, hoping to perhaps recollect why I thought it was only transmitted via direct contact,
Quote:
THE DISEASE
How does smallpox spread?
A person with the smallpox disease is only contagious through spread of the fluids from the rashes or pustules. The greatest risk comes from prolonged face-to-face contact (6 feet or less, most often after 1 or more hours), with an infected person. This is particularly troubling for emergency workers because the patient may present with nothing more than a fever and sores inside their mouth that the emergency worker may or may not detect.
Indirect contact is less efficient at spreading the virus, but can still occur via fine-particle aerosols or inanimate objects carrying the virus.
Spread by contact with inanimate objects (e.g., clothing, towels, linens) would be less common, but possible.
|
Quote:
Transmission
Generally, direct and fairly prolonged face-to-face contact is required to spread smallpox from one person to another.
|
Quote:
How is smallpox spread?
Smallpox spreads from contact with infected persons.
|
Quote:
How is smallpox spread?
Smallpox is spread person-to-person through direct contact with respiratory droplets, aerosols, secretions, and skin lesions of an infected person. Direct and fairly prolonged face-to-face contact (less than six feet for more than three hours) generally is required to spread smallpox from person-to-person. Although less common, it can be transmitted through contact with contaminated clothing or bedding.
|
While smallpox could have been spread by diseased clothing or bed linens, it wasn't. It was spread by direct person-to-person contact.
That's why I recollected it that way.