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LONDON (AP) – A Liberian woman who may have contracted the Ebola virus in 2014 may have infected three members of her family a year after her first illness, doctors said in a study published on Monday
. Ebola for women via badual transmission – the virus can survive in sperm for more than a year – but the new case is the first time scientists have suggested that the Ebola virus was transmitted by a woman after a period extended.
The spread of the Ebola virus long after the infection underscores the importance of survivor surveillance, particularly with the imminent end of the recent outbreak of the disease in Congo. The latest outbreak in this country, announced in May, has so far recorded 38 confirmed cases, including 14 deaths. It should be declared content Wednesday, which will mark 42 days, or two incubation periods, since the last case was recorded.
"The Ebola virus is hiding in places where it can escape antibodies from the immune system," so there is a need for vigilance, "said Dr. David Heymann, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the School London Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which was not related to the new research
identified after the 15-year-old woman's son was diagnosed with Ebola in November 2015. Scientists then tested the rest of her family: the wife, her husband and their three youngest sons.
The 15-year-old died a few days later The father and an 8-year-old boy were Ebola positive, but both The couple's 5-year-old son was not infected
Doctors found Ebola antibodies in the mother, her bad milk, and her 2-month-old baby, suggesting previous infection and the possibility of transmitting protection to one's baby. researchers reported genetic similarities between the viruses taken from the father, the two boys and the strain circulating during the 2014-15 epidemic in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, which eventually killed more than 11,000 people in the largest Ebola outbreak in history
Scientists found that the woman had taken care of her brother in July 2014, who died after suffering similar symptoms to those of Ebola but before being tested for the disease. The woman later experienced a similar illness, but never sought care.
Several weeks after giving birth to a baby in September 2015, the woman developed problems, including fatigue and breathing difficulties. Doctors say that because pregnancy lowers the body's immune defenses, it may have allowed the Ebola virus to reappear.
"The suspicious disease she had after childbirth could have been a reactivation of Ebola, but we have no confirmation." Tests said Dr. Emily Kainne Dokubo , who led the Ebola response in Liberia for the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the senior author of the study
Dokubo said that it was possible that the woman infected her husband and two older sons. with Ebola when they took care of it – the disease normally spreads by contact with the blood of an infected patient or other bodily fluids. The case report was published online Monday in the journal Lancet.
"There is no complete evidence to reconstruct what happened, but it is the most likely scenario," says Lorenzo Subissi, epidemiologist at Sciensano.
Dokubo said such cases of reemerging Ebola are exceptional, with only two reported cases: a Scottish nurse who developed Ebola-caused meningitis hidden in her brain and an American doctor who had persistent viruses . in his eye. In both cases, the virus did not spread further.
"We do not want that there is a sense of complacency with people who think that just because the outbreak is over, there is nothing left to do," says Dokubo. . "There is a risk of viral persistence and people should immediately consult so that we can immediately detect any suspicious cases and stop a larger outbreak."
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Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Institute of Scientific Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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