The Ebola virus is MUTATING and 'could become more contagious' warn scientists who first identified the outbreak
- Researchers in France believe the Ebola virus is showing signs of mutating
- Team have been tracing the virus' spread throughout Guinea
- Experts say it is 'not surprising' the virus is changing - it is like HIV and influenza which tend to mutate quickly
- They cautioned it is very unlikely Ebola will mutate to become airborne
Patient zero - the first person to be infected - has been identified as two-year-old Emile Ouamouno from the rural village of Meliandou. He died four days after he fell ill with a sky-high fever and vomiting in December 2013, just weeks later his sister succumbed to the disease, followed by their mother and grandmother. From there the virus spread before the scientists at Institut Pasteur identified it as Ebola three months later after it was reported to the health authorities.
The team have since been tracing the virus' spread through Guinea, to establish if the disease could become more contagious. They have started the process of examining hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in the West African nation where the first cases struck in December 2013.
Human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai, told the BBC: 'We know the virus is changing quite a lot. 'That's important for diagnosing and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy.' He told Radio 4's Today programme viruses have to 'fight a balance' between infecting people and spreading. 'We have seen several cases that don't have any symptoms at all when infected,' he said. 'These people may be the ones who could spread the virus better, we do not know yet. 'A virus can change from more deadly into less deadly but more contagious and that is something we are afraid of.'
Viruses do change over a period of time. Ebola is an RNA virus, similar to HIV and influenza, and as such it has a high rate of mutation. But, while it is not surprising the virus is mutating, experts said, we cannot predict how it will evolve.
Dr Marta Tufet, science portfolio developer at the Wellcome Trust, which is funding one of the experiment vaccinations in development, said the longer the virus remains infecting the human population, 'the more likely it is to mutate and adapt to its environment'. But she cautioned: 'There is really no precedent for any known RNA virus to mutate so radically that it would change its mode of transmission.'
People can only catch Ebola by coming into contact with the bodily fluids - urine, vomit, diarrhoea - of an infected individual. It is not an airborne disease, and as such cannot be transmitted through infected people coughing or breathing in open spaces. Dr Tufet added: 'HIV is another RNA virus that mutates all the time and has been circulating in far more people than Ebola, yet its route of transmission remains unchanged.' While acknowledging it is important to study the way Ebola is changing to help better understand how to tackle it, and how it responds to vaccines and drugs. She said a suggestion the virus could become airborne is 'unfounded.'
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The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has claimed more than 8,000 lives in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, but the World Health Organisation say the outbreak has now entered its 'second phase' with the focus shifting to ending the crisis. 'It risks detracting from the important issues at hand,' she added.
Echoing Dr Tufet's thoughts, Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham said it is a well known fact that viruses mutate. 'Even if the virus is mutating, we don't know what impact, if any, those genetic changes are having,' he said. 'Asymptomatic infection is not a new thing, it's been seen in past outbreaks. 'Why some people remain well while others die is not clear, but it's most likely down to the host, our own genetic make-up has a massive influence on how viral infections affect us.'
It's feasible, he said, that changes in the virus could change the severity of the infection but said the truth is scientists do not yet have the answers. 'That's why studying virus and host genetics is important,' he added. 'When at last we have those answers, then we can start to determine their possible impact.'
Meanwhile the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there were fewer than 100 cases in a week for the first time since June. In the week from January 25 there were 30 cases in Guinea, four in Liberia and 65 in Sierra Leone. The WHO said the epidemic has entered a 'second phase' with the focus shifting to ending the outbreak.
What is ebola and where did it come from?
What is ebola and where did it come from?
1 comment:
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