Current Ebola outbreak is shockingly traced traced to survivor of West Africa crisis 5 years ago

Stunning analysis traces new Ebola outbreak to survivor of W. Africa crisis The analysis suggests that a survivor of the historic Ebola outbreak continued shedding the virus at least five years after being infected. Helen Branswell STAT

A survivor of the massive 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak almost certainly triggered an outbreak currently underway in Guinea, according to a new genetic analysis, news that has landed like a bombshell in the community of researchers who study the dangerous virus.

The analysis suggests that a survivor of the historic Ebola outbreak continued harboring the virus at least five years after being infected, eventually transmitting it to someone. Previously, the longest an Ebola survivor was believed to have shed the virus was about 500 days.

“I was completely shocked,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist affiliated with the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, told STAT.

The discovery was revealed in a genetic analysis of viruses from the current outbreak that was conducted by scientists from Guinea, the Institut Pasteur in Senegal, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and the University of Edinburgh. It was posted online Friday.

The scientists compared several genetic sequences from the current outbreak — in which 18 people have been infected to date — with sequences from viruses collected during the West African outbreak. Given the long interval between the two events, the assumption had been that this new outbreak was triggered by a new spillover of Ebola viruses from nature. That wasn’t what researchers found.

The new genomes are most closely related to five identical Ebola virus Makona variant genomes sampled in August 2014 from the same region,” the scientists reported. Makona is the name of the Ebola Zaire strain that caused the 2014-2016 outbreak.

The new viruses had a small number of mutations — roughly a dozen. That’s far fewer than what one would have expected if there had been ongoing but undetected transmission of the virus in the region. ...