Concerns of New Ebola Strain in Uganda
The World Health Organization has expressed concern about a new strain of the Ebola virus that has appeared in Uganda’s Bundibugyo District. The last outbreak of the virus was in 2000, when 426 people were diagnosed and 173 died.
The strain is more difficult to find and isolate than those seen previously.
Recent efforts to isolate patients have suffered a setback. “Some people refuse to come out of their home to seek treatment, but our social mobilization team is trying to convince them to come out,” said Samuel Kazinga, who heads the district’s Ebola Taskforce. He described the phenomenon as “psychological” (The Monitor).
Eight health workers—two physicians and six senior clinical officers—contracted Ebola, causing medical personnel to abandon their jobs for fear of infection. However, pathogen experts, international health experts and experienced doctors from international bodies such as WHO, Unicef and Afrinet have been sent to Bundibugyo.
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Milder Ebola strain complicates vaccine search
08 December 2007
Magazine issue 2633
A new type of Ebola virus has been discovered. Though it seems to kill fewer of the people it infects, it could make finding a vaccine more tricky.
Of the 58 people in western Uganda known to have contracted the new type of Ebola since mid-November, fewer than a third have died, and reports suggest that some patients do not suffer from internal bleeding, a hallmark of Ebola fever. The mortality rate so far is significantly lower than the 50 to 90 per cent typical of the two types of Ebola virus already known.
Virologists had already discovered a type of Ebola in monkeys that can infect humans without causing disease, so the emergence of a less virulent Ebola virus affecting humans is not unexpected - but it might not be good news. Less virulent viruses can spread more effectively because carriers stay alive, and infectious, for longer. ...