Tuesday, December 30, 2008

THE RETURN OF EBOLA?

Excerpt from this article in the BBC News:
Eleven people have now died in an outbreak of Ebola in central Democratic Republic of Congo, say aid workers.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said one woman died on Sunday, while another man succumbed in Mweka on Christmas Day.

MSF is treating 24 other suspected Ebola cases at isolation units in the villages of Kaluamba and Kampungu.

It is monitoring 102 people who may have had contact with the virus. The latest outbreak in Western Kasai province emerged in late November.

[...]

It is the first Ebola outbreak in Africa since February and the fourth in DR Congo since 1976....
And in the Philippines:
The USDA's Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory has isolated an atypical porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus from swine samples collected from pigs from four farms north of Manila. The pigs exhibited clinical signs similar to those observed in cases of Porcine High Fever Disease in China and Vietnam....

The Plum Island researchers also isolated the Reston-Ebola virus from 6 of the 28 swine samples tested.
This marks the first time the Ebola virus has been isolated from swine.

[...]

The Reston-Ebola strain is different from other Ebola subtypes, which are all potentially fatal to humans. The Reston-Ebola strain is of Asian origin and can be aerosol transmitted unlike the Zaire and Uganda strains. Also, the Reston strain has not caused illness in humans who come in contact with infected animals....
So far. But the potential for jumping species always exists.

1 comment:

  1. Great Post. Please keep us informed about these new emerging disease. Thank you!

    watchdogonscience

    ReplyDelete