3 Questions: Lydia Bourouiba on Ebola virus transmission
Lydia Bourouiba, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Assistant Professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, garnered media attention last year for her research showing that aerosol particles produced by sneezing and coughing could spread much farther than had been realized — a finding with potentially important ramifications for understanding the spread of diseases such as the flu. MIT News asked Bourouiba what might be learned from that research that could relate to controlling the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. Q. From what you have learned about the way fluid droplets can disperse through sneezing and coughing, are there lessons on possible protective measures that could be taken to curb the spread of the Ebola virus? A. The research in my group focuses on … transmission processes that involve the interaction between fluids and pathogens. These could be outside the hosts, such as in contaminated water,...