The Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo: A different strain of virus

                               

   While an Ebola plague has been raging in West Africa since March 2014, an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever that happened in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in August, leaving fears over the virus might spread to Central Africa. A study by the Institute Pasteur, the IRD, the CIRMF in Gabon, the titut INRB in DRC, the CNRS and the WHO, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 16 October 2014, affirms that it is an Ebola scourge.
However, this particular epidemic is due to a local strain of the virus, not quite the same as the one rife in West Africa. While this result, it shows the two epidemics are not connected, it shows the speed at which the disease has emerged. It is therefore urgent that it needs to see exactly how the illness is spread.

   With the world's eyes focused on West Africa, where many countries have been affected since 2014 by the most serious Ebola epidemic ever witnessed, another outbreak in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 24 August had been reported by WHO. It was therefore important to verify whether this second epidemic originated from that of West Africa, showing its spread to Central Africa.

A Different Strain

   Researchers from the Institute Pasteur, the IRD, the CIRMF in Gabon, the CNRS and the INRB in the DRC, in collaboration with WHO disclosed that it is a new outbreak of haemorrhagic fever, different from the West African outbreak. CIRMF has performed the entire genome sequencing of the virus responsible for utilizing a high-throughput sequencer that is unique to Sub-Saharan Africa. It confirms that it is from Ebola virus species, but this shows Congolese strain is different from the one in West Africa. Moreover, it gives off the impression of being very much alike to those who attacked the DRC and Gabon between 1995 and 1997.

A Contained Epidemic

   This result implies that the Congolese outbreak is due to a local viral strain, which has been controlled. This pestilence began on 26 July 2014 when a woman fell sick a couple of days after cutting up a monkey found dead in the woods.To date, 70 cases have been reported, including 42 deaths, giving a casualty rate of around 60%, similar to that in West Africa. The epidemic peak was observed in the fourth week of August 2014. On account of the insurance measures implemented by the Congolese health authorities, which includes protection of medical staff, instructing the people to avoid all body contact, isolation of patients, the epidemic now appears to be contained.

   This recent rise in Ebola epidemics shows that the likelihood of the virus being transferred from animal reservoirs to humans is increasing. It is therefore urgently need to gain a better understanding of the views and ways in which the virus circulates or spread (seasonal or other) within its natural reservoir and the factors that govern the virus' transfer from one animal species to another or to human beings .

    Full knowledge of these parameters would enable epidemics to be predicted and alert thresholds to be defined which could prove valuable to the rapid implementation of control measures.