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waterboy 
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 Topic: Ebola virus mutated...Posted: January 29 2015 at 7:14am |
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http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31019097
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Jen147
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Posted: January 29 2015 at 9:31am |
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Ebola outbreak: Virus mutating, scientists warn
29 January 2015
Scientists tracking the Ebola outbreak in Guinea say the virus has mutated. Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious. More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea. They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it's able to jump more easily from person to person "We know the virus is changing quite a lot," said human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai. "That's important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy." It's not unusual for viruses to change over a period time. Ebola is an RNA virus - like HIV and influenza - which have a high rate of mutation. That makes the virus more able to adapt and raises the potential for it to become more contagious. "We've now seen several cases that don't have any symptoms at all, asymptomatic cases," said Anavaj Sakuntabhai. "These people may be the people who can spread the virus better, but we still don't know that yet. A virus can change itself to less deadly, but more contagious and that's something we are afraid of." Latest figures
There were fewer than 100 new cases in a week for the first time since June 2014. In the week to 25 January there were 30 cases in Guinea, four in Liberia and 65 in Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization says the epidemic has entered a "second phase" with the focus shifting to ending the epidemic. But Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, says it's still unclear whether more people are actually not showing symptoms in this outbreak compared with previous ones. "We know asymptomatic infections occur… but whether we are seeing more of it in the current outbreak is difficult to ascertain," he said. "It could simply be a numbers game, that the more infection there is out in the wider population, then obviously the more asymptomatic infections we are going to see." Another common concern is that while the virus has more time and more "hosts" to develop in, Ebola could mutate and eventually become airborne. There is no evidence to suggest that is happening. The virus is still only passed through direct contact with infected people's body fluids. Infectious disease expert Professor David Heyman said "No blood borne virus, for example HIV or Hepatitis B, has ever shown any indication of becoming airborne. The mutation would need to be major" Virologist Noel Tordo is in the process of setting up a new from the Institut Pasteur in the Guinea capital Conakry. He said, "At the moment, not enough has been done in terms of the evolution of the virus both geographically and in the human body, so we have to learn more. But something has shown that there are mutations," "For the moment the way of transmission is still the same. You just have to avoid contact (with a sick person)" "But as a scientist you can't predict it won't change. Maybe it will." Researchers are using a method called genetic sequencing to track changes in the genetic make-up of the virus. So far they have analysed around 20 blood samples from Guinea. Another 600 samples are being sent to the labs in the coming months. A previous similar study in Sierra Leone showed the Ebola virus mutated considerably in the first 24 days of the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. It said: "This certainly does raise a lot of scientific questions about transmissibility, response to vaccines and drugs, use of convalescent plasma. "However, many gene mutations may not have any impact on how the virus responds to drugs or behaves in human populations." 'Global problem'The research in Paris will also help give scientists a clearer insight into why some people survive Ebola, and others don't. The survival rate of the current outbreak is around 40%. Prof James Di Santo explains the work being carried out to try to find an Ebola vaccine It's hoped this will help scientists developing vaccines to protect people against the virus. Researchers at the Institut Pasteur are currently developing two vaccines which they hope will be in human trials by the end of the year. One is a modification of the widely used measles vaccine, where people are given a weakened and harmless form of the virus which in turn triggers an immune response. That response fights and defeats the disease if someone comes into contact with it. The idea, if it proves successful, would be that the vaccine would protect against both measles and Ebola. "We've seen now this is a threat that can be quite large and can extend on a global scale," said Professor James Di Santo, and immunologist at the Institut. "We've learned this virus is not a problem of Africa, it's a problem for everyone." He added: "This particular outbreak may wane and go away, but we're going to have another infectious outbreak at some point, because the places where the virus hides in nature, for example in small animals, is still a threat for humans in the future. "The best type of response we can think of… is to have vaccination of global populations." |
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waterboy
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Posted: January 29 2015 at 4:50pm |
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Updated at 7:30 p.m. on January 29, 2015
Related Stories 1. WHO says Ebola epidemic on the decline AFP 2. Weekly Ebola cases below 100, WHO says endgame begins Reuters 3. Sierra Leone now has means to control Ebola epidemic: UN AFP 4. Ebola Vaccines: Here's a Look at the 3 Front-Runners LiveScience.com 5. US: Long-awaited Ebola vaccine study coming soon in Liberia Associated Press Only a day after the World Health Organization announced that an end was in sight for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, scientists had less uplifting news: The virus may be mutating. “The response to the EVD (Ebola virus disease) epidemic has now moved to a second phase, as the focus shifts from slowing transmission to ending the epidemic,” the WHO said in its latest report on the disease yesterday. There were 99 confirmed new cases last week, the lowest number since June. But researchers at the Institut Pasteur, the French medical-research organization that first identified the outbreak in Guinea last March, said that they’re trying to determine whether the Ebola virus is becoming more contagious. "We know the virus is changing quite a lot,” Anavaj Sakuntabhai, the head of the Laboratory for Genetics of Human Response to Infection at the Institut Pasteur, told the BBC. Specifically, he said, there have been a number of asymptomatic cases, meaning that infected people may unknowingly be spreading the disease: “A virus can change itself to less deadly but more contagious, and that's something we are afraid of.” Recommended: Liberals and the Illiberal Left Sakuntabhai and his colleagues are currently analyzing hundreds of blood samples from Guinean patients to monitor the virus’s evolution. "That's important for diagnosing and for treatment," he said. “We need to know how the virus [is changing] to keep up with our enemy." "We know the virus is changing quite a lot. It can become less deadly but more contagious, and that's something we're afraid of." Ebola, like measles, HIV, and influenza, is an RNA virus, meaning it can mutate quickly and often. In August, a paper published in the journal Nature found that the virus had already evolved several times over in the first month of the outbreak in Sierra Leone (five of the paper’s authors died of Ebola before their work was published), though there is still nothing to suggest that the virus has become airborne, a common fear over the course of the epidemic, or that it has evolved out of reach of existing treatments. "The mutations do not seem to be affecting the efficacy of experimental drugs and vaccines," Nature reported of the Sierra Leone paper in August. Recommended: The World's Next Mortgage Crisis? "It isn't surprising at all that the virus is mutating," said Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but "I haven't seen any compelling data yet that the mutations are associated with a change in the function of the virus." According to the most recent numbers from the WHO, the current Ebola outbreak has killed 8,461 people and infected around 22,000, nearly all in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Meanwhile, scientists reported the results from the first human trials of an Ebola vaccine, published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, with cautious optimism. “The safety profile is pretty much as we'd hoped and the immune responses are okay, but not great,” Adrian Hill, the lead researcher for the trials, told Reuters, and researchers believe a booster will probably be needed for full protection. Last week, GlaxoSmithKline, the company that developed the vaccine, shipped 9,000 doses to Monrovia, Liberia for a phase III clinical trial. The Institut Pasteur is also working on two vaccines, aiming for human trials by the end of this year. Recommended: The Sophisticated Bigotry of Bobby Jindal “The best type of resource we can think of … is to have vaccination of global populations,” James Di Santo, the head of Pasteur’s Innate Immunology Unit, told the BBC. “This particular outbreak may wane and go away, but we're going to have another infectious outbreak at some point, because the places where the virus hides in nature—for example, in small animals—is still a threat for humans in the future.” This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/01/ebola-may-be-mutating/384987/?UTM_SOURCE=yahoo |
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CRS, DrPH
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Joined: January 20 2014 Location: Arizona Status: Offline Points: 26660 |
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Posted: January 29 2015 at 9:24pm |
Believe me, I share their concern! If Ebola mutates into a chronic human virus, like HIV etc., it will be a real problem worldwide. Certain people will be super-spreaders, some will be much more susceptible than others, and the disease may take on new transmission patterns. I don't foresee this thing ever mutating enough to go completely airborne, but we could have more "inapparent infections" walking around, shedding virus without symptoms. |
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CRS, DrPH
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onefluover
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Posted: January 30 2015 at 6:36am |
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...to quietly infect and kill those with weaker immune systems or "underlying conditions". The Brown Virus. This may be what's been going on already. The number of infected being within past predictions but only the severest cases noted.
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"And then there were none."
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CRS, DrPH
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Posted: January 30 2015 at 9:26am |
This will make HIV AIDS look like a cake-walk. Certain cases will be chronic with no symptoms, and others (probably immune compromised) will break out in fulminant infection, infecting their contacts with a high virus dose that results in full-blown EVD. |
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CRS, DrPH
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Technophobe
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Posted: January 30 2015 at 1:29pm |
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Can anyone tell me what The Brown Virus is?
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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onefluover
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Posted: January 30 2015 at 2:28pm |
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Somewhere between highly lethal and only very mildly lethal. If it has or is showing sign of transforming into something much less lethal and more highly contagious then to me it should be denoted a new name. One that signifies it once was more lethal. In one word. "Brown" is often used in such descriptions. Black-out. Brown-out.
Ebola has of course been compared to or attempted to be related to The Black Death. |
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"And then there were none."
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Technophobe
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Posted: January 30 2015 at 5:25pm |
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Thank you Oneflu.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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Kay
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Posted: February 01 2015 at 12:49pm |
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http://www.trust.org/item/20150130135424-gbgxf/?source=jtOtherNews3
Red Cross Ebola coordinator says virus flaring up * Still areas of Guinea where it has "no access" By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - West Africa will be lucky to wipe out Ebola this year, as the local population remains suspicious of aid workers, especially in Guinea, the Red Cross said on Friday. The virus is "flaring up" in new areas in the region and not all
We are also seeing that in places like Sierra Leone and especially in Guinea that it is flaring up in new districts all the time, with small new chains of transmission, which means that it's not under control and it could flare up big-time again," Hald told a news briefing in Geneva |
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waterboy wrote: