2 ms·
My understanding of the 42 day waiting period was slightly different. I didn't think it was 21*2 to allow for an intermediate unknown person. I thought it was t
by ncallaway 12y ago
My understanding of the 42 day waiting period was slightly different. I didn't think it was 21*2 to allow for an intermediate unknown person. I thought it was that the 21 day incubation period is something like the 95th percentile, and the 42 day period is the 98-99th percentile.
From the article: "The 42-day period is twice the generally accepted maximum incubation period of the virus. However, some incubation periods are longer - that WHO said that in 95 percent of cases the incubation period was between one and 21 days. In 98 percent it was no longer than 42 days."
- nostrademons 12y agoWikipedia has the incubation period listed as 2-21 days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease That's backed up by two citations, from the CDC and WHO. I think I'd also read something, before this epidemic started, that said the longest known incubation period was 21 days. I've since found a bunch of articles, and one WHO press release, that say the 95th percentile was 21 days and 98th was 42 days. I'm a little skeptical of them, though: they all trace back to that one WHO press release, which is based on the West Africa epidemic, where (because transmission is endemic) it's quite possible that a patient was re-infected at a later date and that's why the incubation period seems longer. Unless I see evidence from a country where the cases are all contact-traced, I'd be inclined to believe the earlier studies about the virus and not the latest articles.