Uganda Ebola Spread Increases
Recombinomics Commentary
December 4, 2007
The conventional wisdom was that Ebola is containable because it kills its victims faster than it can find new ones. However, conditions on the ground are now proving otherwise. While 61 cases have been identified, Zaramba says the health ministry is having difficulty detecting more cases or identifying people with whom patients had contact. And as of the weekend, the disease had spread to three new zones in Bundibugyo district. Local officials speaking on the condition of anonymity say that the death toll is almost twice that reported.
The above comments describe the worsening situation in Uganda. Recent media reports suggest the outbreak has spread further this week, and the infections of health care workers raise transmission concerns. The current strain was difficult to identify, and is likely a recombinant. Recombination has been linked to the emergence of new Ebola strains, and some of these strains share a region of identity with H5 influenza. Both influenza and filoviruses are negative sense RNA viruses and influenza is transported and transmitted by migratory birds that fly into Africa.
The new species may also have different transmission modes. The symptoms of the cases are closer to those associated with H5N1 than those associated with Ebola. The CDC has partial Ebola sequence data, but the relationship between those sequences and prior Ebola sequences remain unclear.
Release of the partial sequences would be useful. The Ebola / H5 identity is in the envelope gene, and the region has differences in strains of Ebola as well as high and low path H5.
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