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# 8484
While our attentions have understandably been diverted by the MERS coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, the battle against a large Ebola outbreak in west Africa continues, and this morning we have updated numbers and some interesting news on that front.
Yesterday the NEJM published a preliminary report on this outbreak, breaking the news that the viral culprit is a new strain of Ebola, not an imported strain of Ebola Zaire as first thought.
Although the two most common strains of Ebola known to cause outbreaks are Ebola Zaire (EBOV) and Ebola Sudan (SUDV), three other strains have previously been identified; Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV), rarely seen Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV), and a strain found in the Philippines - not known to cause illness in humans - called Ebola Reston (RESTV) (see A Brief History of Ebola).
A link and a couple of snippets from the NEJM report follows:
Brief Report
Emergence of Zaire Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea — Preliminary Report
Sylvain Baize, Ph.D., Delphine Pannetier, Ph.D., Lisa Oestereich, M.Sc., Toni Rieger, Ph.D., Lamine Koivogui, Ph.D., N'Faly Magassouba, Ph.D., Barrè Soropogui, M.Sc., Mamadou Saliou Sow, M.D., Sakoba Keïta, M.D., Hilde De Clerck, M.D., Amanda Tiffany, M.P.H., Gemma Dominguez, B.Sc., Mathieu Loua, M.D., Alexis Traoré, M.D., Moussa Kolié, M.D., Emmanuel Roland Malano, M.D., Emmanuel Heleze, M.D., Anne Bocquin, M.Sc., Stephane Mély, M.Sc., Hervé Raoul, Ph.D., Valérie Caro, Ph.D., Dániel Cadar, D.V.M., Ph.D., Martin Gabriel, M.D., Meike Pahlmann, Ph.D., Dennis Tappe, M.D., Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, M.D., Benido Impouma, M.D., Abdoul Karim Diallo, M.D., Pierre Formenty, D.V.M., M.P.H., Michel Van Herp, M.D., M.P.H., and Stephan Günther, M.D.
April 16, 2014DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1404505
ABSTRACT
In March 2014, the World Health Organization was notified of an outbreak of a communicable disease characterized by fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting, and a high fatality rate in Guinea. Virologic investigation identified Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) as the causative agent. Full-length genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis showed that EBOV from Guinea forms a separate clade in relationship to the known EBOV strains from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. Epidemiologic investigation linked the laboratory-confirmed cases with the presumed first fatality of the outbreak in December 2013. This study demonstrates the emergence of a new EBOV strain in Guinea.
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DISCUSSION
Phylogenetic analysis of the full-length sequences established a separate clade for the Guinean EBOV strain in sister relationship with other known EBOV strains. This suggests that the EBOV strain from Guinea has evolved in parallel with the strains from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon from a recent ancestor and has not been introduced from the latter countries into Guinea. Potential reservoirs of EBOV, fruit bats of the species Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti, and Myonycteris torquata, are present in large parts of West Africa.18 It is possible that EBOV has circulated undetected in this region for some time. The emergence of the virus in Guinea highlights the risk of EBOV outbreaks in the whole West African subregion.
This morning the World Health Organization – via their twitter account – have been updating the situation. You can monitor the conversation by following @WHO & @HaertlG (both Highly recommended to keep track of global health concerns).
Additionally, the World Health Organization has published a new, updated FAQ on the Ebola virus;
Frequently asked questions on Ebola virus disease
Published 15 April 2014
And lastly, I would note that Crawford Kilian over at Crofsblog has done a terrific job covering the flood of news reports coming out of West Africa on this outbreak.
