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A few days after the end of an Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo that left dozens dead and two years after a major epidemic in West Africa that has made some thousands of deaths, Sierra Leone has discovered a new strain of the virus. While the new species of Bombali Ebola, named after a northern part of the country, has the ability to infect humans, the researchers told the France-Presse agent that did not know yet whether the new virus "At present, it is not yet known whether the Bombali Ebola virus has been transmitted to people or whether it causes disease in humans, but it has the potential to infect human cells, "he added. Amara Jambai, a senior official of the Ministry of Health, told AFP
Jambai also said that the public should remain calm – the research is still at an early stage, and the results are preliminary.
A US-funded project, EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit environmental group, as well as scientists from the University of California at Davis and at Columbia University made the news discovery. The project aims to find new viruses that can spread to people. The new strain has been found in bats in the West African country and is the sixth species of Ebola, according to STAT News, a health-focused news service that is part of Boston Globe Media.
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The CEO of EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, said that a scientific article detailing the evidence and methods of their findings has not yet been published, but is in the works. The government of Sierra Leone has stated that it wants to publish the first conclusions before academic publications to overcome fears.
Last Tuesday, the Democratic Republic of Congo declared that an epidemic of Ebola that had infected 54 people and killed 33 since April had ended. . Previously, an international epidemic in West Africa had killed thousands of people for several years.
This outbreak began in December 2013 when an 18-month-old baby from a small village in Guinea was infected with bats. From there, it spread in the big cities of the country. The World Health Organization officially triggered the alarm in March 2014, classifying it as an Ebola outbreak with about 120 new cases this month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Due to poor health infrastructure and poor quality of life, the disease quickly spread to neighboring countries. In July 2014, Liberia and Sierra Leone were also infected, bringing the number of new cases to more than 700. In October, the figure was 7,000, most in Sierra Leone.
At the end of this epidemic In March 2016, the disease infected more than 26,000 people in 10 countries, causing more than 11,000 deaths. Sierra Leone was the hardest hit, with 4,000 dead.
In the United States, four people were infected on return, resulting in one death.
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