Commentary
Thirty
Ebola Cases in Democratic Republic of Congo
Recombinomics Commentary
16:51
December 25, 2008
was found in the town of Kampongo, near Mueka in the Western Kasai province, according to Augustin Mopipi.
The above comments describe a major outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) in Western Kasai (see map). One media report indicates 9 have died and 92 are infected. More information on the number of confirmed or suspect cases and possible spread would be useful.
In 1976, Zaire had one of the largest outbreaks, affecting over 300 people. Of note is the 18 BP region of identify between the 1975 Zaire isolate and H5N1. Ebola evolves via homologous recombination, which can lead to virulent strains.
In 2007 there was a major outbreak in adjacent Uganda (see 2007 map).
More recently, the Reston strain of Ebola was identified in Philippine swine. Although Reston has not been shown to cause illness in humans, opposition media in China reported that the 2005 outbreak in Sichuan Province that fatally infected dozens who had direct contact with swine, were infected by a recombinant Ebola strain (and the group reports multiple Ebola strains in China).
Sequence data on the swine isolates in the Philippines, as well as the current outbreak in the Congo, would be useful.
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