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Out of Nowhere
Published in Rae-Ellen W. Kavey, Allison B. Kavey, Viral Pandemics, 2020
Rae-Ellen W. Kavey, Allison B. Kavey
In 1990, there was a dramatic development when a terrifying disease struck monkeys imported from the Philippines to the United States for research, while they were in quarantine in Virginia. Symptoms were similar to the clinical picture of Ebola hemorrhagic fever with 100% fatality, but despite extensive contact between caretakers and monkeys, no humans developed any signs of illness and only four handlers even showed antibody evidence of infection. The virus was subsequently found to have originated in captive macaques in the Philippines and was identified as a new Ebola virus, named Ebola Reston.111 There have still been no human illnesses attributed to Ebola Reston but in 2008, the Reston virus was identified as the cause of an epidemic of hemorrhagic fever in pigs; again, animal caretakers had antibody evidence of infection but no humans developed disease.112,113 This is important because it suggests that pigs – known to also be infected with EBOV Zaire – could potentially serve as the site for development of a new recombinant virus capable of infecting humans with an extremely high fatality disease.
The 2014–2016 Epidemic and Earlier Outbreaks
Published in Joseph R. Masci, Elizabeth Bass, Ebola, 2017
Joseph R. Masci, Elizabeth Bass
Five species of the Ebola virus have been recognized: The Zaire species, which was responsible for the West African outbreak of 2014–2016, was first recognized in 1976 and caused most of the past outbreaks of Ebola (Khan 1999).The Sudan species caused four epidemics in Sudan and Uganda (Onyango et al. 2007; Sanchez et al. 2004).The Bundibugyo species, first recognized in Uganda in 2007, caused a limited outbreak with a relatively low case-fatality rate (MacNeil et al. 2010; Clark et al. 2015).The Ivory Coast species has been recognized to cause disease in only one person, who appeared to acquire the infection after performing a necropsy on a chimpanzee found in an area of primate die-off (Formenty et al. 1999).The Reston species has only been identified in monkeys and pigs in the Philippines. Human infection has been documented by the identification of IgG antibody to the virus in a small number of individuals with only mild or asymptomatic infection (Miranda et al. 1999). Unlike other strains of the virus, the Reston virus has not been encountered in Africa. From 1989 through 1996, seven small outbreaks of this strain have been recognized in animals (CDC 2016a). These are not included in the data listed in Table 1.1 or shown in Map 1.1.
Targeting Ebola virus replication through pharmaceutical intervention
Published in Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, 2021
Frederick Hansen, Heinz Feldmann, Michael A Jarvis
Ebolaviruses are non-segmented, single-stranded negative sense RNA viruses that together with marburgviruses represent the archetypal members of the only two known genera of the Filoviridae family that cause disease in humans[1]. Members of the remaining four genera have to date not been associated with human disease [2]. Together with the recently identified Bombali ebolavirus (Bombali virus, BOMV) [3], the Ebolavirus genus is comprised of six member species: Zaire ebolavirus (Ebola virus, EBOV), Sudan ebolavirus (Sudan virus (SUDV), Tai Forest ebolavirus (Tai Forest virus, TAFV), Bundibugyo ebolavirus (Bundibugyo virus, BDBV), and Reston ebolavirus (Reston virus, RESTV) [2]. All species except BOBV and RESTV have been associated with ebolavirus-like disease in humans, with EBOV being the major species involved with human disease since the first of two non-related ebolavirus outbreaks (involving EBOV and SUDV) [4] in 1976 (based on current nomenclature, ‘ebolavirus’ relates to the genus comprised six species: EBOV SUDV, TAFV, BDBV, BOBV, and RESTV). Since this time, human ebolavirus outbreaks have become an ever more frequent occurrence, which is thought to be driven by human activity including deforestation, bushmeat hunting and climate change [4–6]. The world’s second largest EBOV outbreak was recently declared over in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the 25thof June, 2020 after nearly 2 years and 2,299 deaths [7]. A smaller unrelated outbreak in western DRC also recently ended on the 18th of November, 2020 [8].
Potent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against Ebola virus isolated from vaccinated donors
Published in mAbs, 2020
Pengfei Fan, Xiangyang Chi, Guodong Liu, Guanying Zhang, Zhengshan Chen, Yujiao Liu, Ting Fang, Jianmin Li, Logan Banadyga, Shihua He, Changming Yu, Xiangguo Qiu, Wei Chen
Ebola virus is a highly dangerous single-stranded negative-sense RNA virus of the Filoviridae family. It can cause severe Ebola virus disease (EVD) in both human and non-human primates, with mortality rates of up to 90%.1 Ebola virus (EBOV) belongs to the Ebolavirus genus, which also includes Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Reston virus (RESTV), and Taï Forest virus (TAFV). Bombali virus (BOMV), which was isolated from small tailless bats in 2018, represents a potential new addition to the genus.2,3 Since the discovery of EBOV 44 years ago, ebolaviruses have reemerged in the human population 28 times.4 EBOV, the most deadly ebolavirus, has caused as many as 18 outbreaks, including the 2013–2016 epidemic in West Africa and the ongoing epidemic in the Republic of the Congo. The 2013–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa resulted in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths; it also marked the first occurrence of ebolavirus infection outside Africa.5,6 The fatality rate of EBOV (40%~90%) is higher than that of SUDV (36%~65%) and BDBV (25%~36%).7 TAFV has a high mortality rate in chimpanzee populations, but only one serious non-lethal case has been reported in humans.8 RESTV appears to be asymptomatic in humans,9 and it remains unclear if the newly discovered BOMV causes disease in animals or humans.
Recent advances in the development and evaluation of molecular diagnostics for Ebola virus disease
Published in Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 2019
John Tembo, Edgar Simulundu, Katendi Changula, Dale Handley, Matthew Gilbert, Moses Chilufya, Danny Asogun, Rashid Ansumana, Nathan Kapata, Francine Ntoumi, Giuseppe Ippolito, Alimuddin Zumla, Matthew Bates
Viruses from the family Filoviridae can cause viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs), including Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Marburg virus disease (MVD) [1]. There are five known Ebolavirus species, namely Zaire ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, Taï Forest ebolavirus, Bundibugyo ebolavirus, and Reston ebolavirus, represented by the following viruses, respectively, Ebola virus (EBOV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Taï Forest virus (TAFV), Bundibugyo virus (BDBV) and Reston virus (RESTV) [2]. There is also one newly proposed ebolavirus isolated from insectivorous bats, Bombali virus (BOMV), as yet not known to cause human disease [3]. There is only one known marburgvirus species, Marburg marburgvirus, with two known viruses, Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVV) [2]. There is a third genus within the Filoviridae called Cuevavirus that is not linked to VHF in humans.