A case of resurgence of Ebola one year after initial infection



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This scientific discovery raises fears of a greater stigmatization of the thousands of survivors of the West African epidemic in 2014.

The World
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 At the Monrovia crematorium, where victims of the Ebola epidemic were cremated in March 2015.

The Ebola virus can continue to kill, even though the disease has been declared defeated. An article in the scientific journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases published Tuesday, July 24, reports the case of a woman who, one year after surviving the disease, infected her husband and two of her children at home. Liberia, in November 2015.

"This is not the first time, but these cases of resurgence are quite rare, and we must, each time, document them in order to be able to quantify the probability and organize the follow-up programs" explains Dr. Lorenzo Subissi, microbiologist and epidemiologist, co-author of the article. A dozen similar cases were observed, including two in Liberia, during the year 2015.

In fact, after the Ebola fever episode in West Africa, during the years 2014-2015, which killed more than 11,000, for the first time the medical community was able to work on a large number of survivors, 17,000, since the virus had contaminated 28,000 people in all three affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. "In previous epidemics [les premières flambées de fièvre à virus Ebola sont apparues en 1976] we had at most a few tens, or even hundreds, of people who survived the disease, whereas, there, there are thousands" Lorenzo Subissi advance.

"Reactivation" during pregnancy

In the case documented by The Lancet Infectious Diseases this is a family of six: parents and four sons aged 2 months, 5 years, 8 years and 15 years. The latter was diagnosed with Ebola in Monrovia on November 19, 2015. He was immediately sent to an Ebola treatment unit and died four days later.

The investigations, systematically conducted in the entourage of the patients, revealed that the father and the son of 8 years, as well as the deceased son, were also carriers of the virus, identical …

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