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In Liberia, doctors report that a mother who was infected with Ebola in the summer of 2014 infected her husband and two sons in November 2015. She had never been diagnosed before.
woman infected in 2014 reportedly transmitted the Ebola virus to three members of her family a year later, report Liberian and American doctors in a study published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Between 2014 and 2015, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa claimed more than 28,000 lives and more than 11,000 deaths. By studying the survivors of this haemorrhagic fever, the scientific world has learned that the virus can persist for several months in the body, especially in sperm, bad milk or cerebrospinal fluid. A disturbing persistence as it is responsible for several resurgences in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
Liberia was the first country to celebrate the end of the epidemic. Unfortunately every time the country thought it was finally cleared, cases resurfaced. This is especially what happened in November 2015, two months after the official declaration of the end of the epidemic.
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On November 17, 2015, a 15-year-old boy was admitted to a hospital in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, because of typical Ebola symptoms (severe headache, fatigue, diarrhea, and vomiting). blood). Transferred to an Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) to receive care, he dies a few days later.
His parents and his three younger brothers aged 8, 5 and 2 months are also cared for in this CTE to be monitored. Thanks to blood tests, the doctors realize that the father and the boy of 8 years are also infected. The interview of the family indicates that they showed symptoms of the infection before the deceased patient. They tried to treat themselves with medicinal herbs.
In addition, doctors find antibodies against the Ebola virus in the mother's blood as well as her milk, demonstrating that she was, she, too, faces the virus. However, she was never diagnosed and never treated in a CTE, and even less received a specific treatment.
Unknowing patient a year earlier
Without mentioning haemorrhagic fever , she tells the doctors that she became ill a year earlier, in July 2014, after being at the side of her sick brother. The latter was a nurse in a health center at the beginning of the epidemic, and would have taken care of patients with Ebola. But at the time, carers do not know the virus and do not know how to protect themselves from it. Like many health professionals, the man succumbed to Ebola.
A few days after the death of his brother, the 33-year-old woman presented with signs of Ebola. Unaware of the disease, she does not go to the hospital. Because of the infection, she will miscarry in August 2014.
A year later, she gives birth to her last son. A few weeks later, she goes to a hospital for persistent fatigue, edema and difficulty breathing. She receives treatment for anemia, an antimalarial drug and a blood transfusion. At no time is Ebola infection sought or detected.
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Luckily, the midwife who helped her to give birth at home did not contract the infection, as well as the caregivers who took care of her at the hospital. Unfortunately, this is not the case for her husband and two of her sons. According to the authors of the study, the resurgence of the disease could be badociated with the immune changes that occur during pregnancy, especially in the postpartum period. "It is possible that the mother still had the virus or had a resurgence of the infection after her pregnancy in September 2015 and then fell ill in October, they think. During this period, she was able to transmit protective antibodies to her infant and at the same time she was able to infect her husband who subsequently infected his sons. "
Researchers point out that they still do not know how the mother could transmit the virus to her husband. No case of badual transmission from a surviving woman has yet been demonstrated. However, these results confirm once again that controlling the spread of the Ebola virus is not easy. "Countries facing the virus must continue to strengthen their health systems to be able to detect cases and act quickly to prevent the spread of the virus," says Emily Kainne Dokubo, researcher at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC), and responsible for this work.
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