The Ebola virus, which is responsible for the recent outbreak of the disease in the Western African state of Guinea, differs from strains previously identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Gabon and represents an individual clade. This is the outcome of a study undertaken by French researchers. The findings were published in the "New England Journal of Medicine".
Scientists from the University of Lyon, the Laboratoire P4 Jean Mérieux, and the Institut Pasteur in Lyon analysed blood samples from 20 Ebola patients from Guinea, from which they extracted and sequenced viral RNA. Compared to other Ebola genomes, the virus strain from Guinea showed 97 percent identity with those responsible for the outbreak in Congo in 1976 and 2007, and in Gabon in 1994 and 1996.
"These results show that we are facing the emergence of a new 'form' of this virus in Guinea," explained Hervé Raoul from the Laboratoire P4 Jean Mérieux. There is every indication that the current epidemic originated from a single transmission from animal to human. According to the researchers, the results show that the endemic area for Ebola virus is larger than previously thought. In the future, West Africa should therefore be considered an Ebola risk area.
Univadis
