1. Reduced evolutionary rate in reemerged Ebola virus transmission chains.
- Author
-
Blackley DJ, Wiley MR, Ladner JT, Fallah M, Lo T, Gilbert ML, Gregory C, D'ambrozio J, Coulter S, Mate S, Balogun Z, Kugelman J, Nwachukwu W, Prieto K, Yeiah A, Amegashie F, Kearney B, Wisniewski M, Saindon J, Schroth G, Fakoli L, Diclaro JW 2nd, Kuhn JH, Hensley LE, Jahrling PB, Ströher U, Nichol ST, Massaquoi M, Kateh F, Clement P, Gasasira A, Bolay F, Monroe SS, Rambaut A, Sanchez-Lockhart M, Scott Laney A, Nyenswah T, Christie A, and Palacios G
- Subjects
- Disease Outbreaks, Ebolavirus genetics, Genome, Viral genetics, Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola genetics, Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola virology, Humans, Liberia, Ebolavirus pathogenicity, Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola epidemiology, Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola transmission
- Abstract
On 29 June 2015, Liberia's respite from Ebola virus disease (EVD) was interrupted for the second time by a renewed outbreak ("flare-up") of seven confirmed cases. We demonstrate that, similar to the March 2015 flare-up associated with sexual transmission, this new flare-up was a reemergence of a Liberian transmission chain originating from a persistently infected source rather than a reintroduction from a reservoir or a neighboring country with active transmission. Although distinct, Ebola virus (EBOV) genomes from both flare-ups exhibit significantly low genetic divergence, indicating a reduced rate of EBOV evolution during persistent infection. Using this rate of change as a signature, we identified two additional EVD clusters that possibly arose from persistently infected sources. These findings highlight the risk of EVD flare-ups even after an outbreak is declared over.
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF