It's now been decided that the Sudanese outbreak is NOT due to a novel strain.
The second article gives a tad more detail about the death at Vektor:
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,25492
***Sudan Outbreak Strain of Ebola Virus Not Now Considered to be a Novel Strain
----------------------------------------------------
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Tue 24 May 2004 that 5 people [one more than previously reported] have died of Ebola [haemorrhagic fever] in southern Sudan, but dismissed fears that a new variant strain of the disease had emerged. In addition to the dead, 14 other people have
haemorrhagic fever, WHO stated. The U.N. agency stated that a known form of the virus was responsible for the outbreak.
On Saturday, WHO said it believed a new, milder strain of Ebola virus could have caused the outbreak. This was wrong, said Dick Thompson, spokesman for the U.N. health agency. "The reason was that initial lab tests were very confusing," Thompson said.
The Ebola virus is spread by contact with body fluids, including sweat and saliva. Outbreaks of the disease are rare, and no one knows [the source and vector of Ebola virus].
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Dr. Burkhard Rieke DTM&H (Liv.) of the Centre for Travel Medicine, Dusseldorf, Germany has pointed out that the BBC News report quoted in the ProMED-mail report -- Acute hemorrhagic fever - Sudan (W Equatoria) (03): Ebola conf. 20040524.1387 -- omitted mention of the well-documented 1995
outbreak in Kikwit /then Zaire, now DRC.
The Ebola viruses responsible for the outbreaks in Sudan in 1976 and 1979 are phylogenetically distinct from the filoviruses associated with the haemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Cote d'Ivoire (in 1994), Gabon (in 1996), and Zaire (in 1976 and 1995). The Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, and Zaire isolates cluster together, whereas the Sudan isolates cluster with the viruses isolated from primates imported into an animal facility in Reston (Virginia, USA), which proved to have limited pathogenicity for humans. These various viruses have been designated distinct virus species by the ICTV: namely, Cote d'Ivoire Ebola virus, Reston Ebola virus, Sudan Ebola virus, and Zaire Ebola virus. Further information on the precise relationship of the current Sudanese outbreak strain is awaited with interest. - Mod.CP]***
I'd be curious to know the nature of the confusion with initial test results. I'd also like to find info on just how closely Reson & Sudan are genetically. I can think of a few nightmares there...
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,25490
***Russian Scientist Dies in Lab Accident Involving Ebola Virus
---------------------------------------------------
A Russian researcher has died after sticking herself with a needle
containing the deadly Ebola virus, her organization said on Tue 24 May 2004. The accident occurred on 5 May 2004, when the scientist was conducting research on Ebola virus, a virus for which no vaccine or remedy exists, said Natalia Skultetskaya, a spokeswoman for the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology outside Novosibirsk in central Siberia.
Skultetskaya said that efforts to save the scientist failed and she died on Wed 19 May 2004 at a special hospital located in the grounds of the Centre. Research and medical personnel who were in contact with Presnyakova during her treatment will remain under medical observation for 3 weeks, she said.
Skultetskaya denied a report in the New York Times that the Centre was slow to inform the World Health Organization about the incident, reporting it only last week. She said the case was reported immediately to both the Russian Health Ministry and the WHO. "We received all the necessary medical assistance," Skultetskaya said. "On the WHO's advice, we had a conference
call involving a doctor who treated Ebola haemorrhagic fever patients in Africa."
The incident was the 3rd case of accidental contraction of a deadly virus at Vector, which [once] served as a top biological weapons laboratory in Soviet times. One Vector researcher accidentally contracted Marburg virus and died in 1988, while another worker contracted the same virus and survived in 1990, Skultetskaya said. [Marburg virus and Ebola virus are similar but genetically and antigenically distinguishable viruses that cause lethal acute haemorrhagic fevers in humans and belong to the same virus family -- the family _Filoviridae_. - Mod.CP] In a 1996 incident at another Russian biological research centre, the Defence Ministry's Virology Center in Sergiyev Posad near Moscow, a worker accidentally contracted the Ebola virus infection and died, Skultetskaya said.
Ebola virus is spread by contact with body fluids, including sweat and saliva. Outbreaks of the disease are rare, and [the source and vector of the virus are unknown]. Skultetskaya said the Vector Laboratory was conducting research on Ebola and Marburg viruses to develop specific vaccines.***
I wasn't aware they'd had more than one fatal lab accident. Yes, a few labs ARE working on vaccines for Ebola - not surprised Vektor is one of them.
The second article gives a tad more detail about the death at Vektor:
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,25492
***Sudan Outbreak Strain of Ebola Virus Not Now Considered to be a Novel Strain
----------------------------------------------------
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Tue 24 May 2004 that 5 people [one more than previously reported] have died of Ebola [haemorrhagic fever] in southern Sudan, but dismissed fears that a new variant strain of the disease had emerged. In addition to the dead, 14 other people have
haemorrhagic fever, WHO stated. The U.N. agency stated that a known form of the virus was responsible for the outbreak.
On Saturday, WHO said it believed a new, milder strain of Ebola virus could have caused the outbreak. This was wrong, said Dick Thompson, spokesman for the U.N. health agency. "The reason was that initial lab tests were very confusing," Thompson said.
The Ebola virus is spread by contact with body fluids, including sweat and saliva. Outbreaks of the disease are rare, and no one knows [the source and vector of Ebola virus].
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Dr. Burkhard Rieke DTM&H (Liv.) of the Centre for Travel Medicine, Dusseldorf, Germany has pointed out that the BBC News report quoted in the ProMED-mail report -- Acute hemorrhagic fever - Sudan (W Equatoria) (03): Ebola conf. 20040524.1387 -- omitted mention of the well-documented 1995
outbreak in Kikwit /then Zaire, now DRC.
The Ebola viruses responsible for the outbreaks in Sudan in 1976 and 1979 are phylogenetically distinct from the filoviruses associated with the haemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Cote d'Ivoire (in 1994), Gabon (in 1996), and Zaire (in 1976 and 1995). The Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, and Zaire isolates cluster together, whereas the Sudan isolates cluster with the viruses isolated from primates imported into an animal facility in Reston (Virginia, USA), which proved to have limited pathogenicity for humans. These various viruses have been designated distinct virus species by the ICTV: namely, Cote d'Ivoire Ebola virus, Reston Ebola virus, Sudan Ebola virus, and Zaire Ebola virus. Further information on the precise relationship of the current Sudanese outbreak strain is awaited with interest. - Mod.CP]***
I'd be curious to know the nature of the confusion with initial test results. I'd also like to find info on just how closely Reson & Sudan are genetically. I can think of a few nightmares there...
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,25490
***Russian Scientist Dies in Lab Accident Involving Ebola Virus
---------------------------------------------------
A Russian researcher has died after sticking herself with a needle
containing the deadly Ebola virus, her organization said on Tue 24 May 2004. The accident occurred on 5 May 2004, when the scientist was conducting research on Ebola virus, a virus for which no vaccine or remedy exists, said Natalia Skultetskaya, a spokeswoman for the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology outside Novosibirsk in central Siberia.
Skultetskaya said that efforts to save the scientist failed and she died on Wed 19 May 2004 at a special hospital located in the grounds of the Centre. Research and medical personnel who were in contact with Presnyakova during her treatment will remain under medical observation for 3 weeks, she said.
Skultetskaya denied a report in the New York Times that the Centre was slow to inform the World Health Organization about the incident, reporting it only last week. She said the case was reported immediately to both the Russian Health Ministry and the WHO. "We received all the necessary medical assistance," Skultetskaya said. "On the WHO's advice, we had a conference
call involving a doctor who treated Ebola haemorrhagic fever patients in Africa."
The incident was the 3rd case of accidental contraction of a deadly virus at Vector, which [once] served as a top biological weapons laboratory in Soviet times. One Vector researcher accidentally contracted Marburg virus and died in 1988, while another worker contracted the same virus and survived in 1990, Skultetskaya said. [Marburg virus and Ebola virus are similar but genetically and antigenically distinguishable viruses that cause lethal acute haemorrhagic fevers in humans and belong to the same virus family -- the family _Filoviridae_. - Mod.CP] In a 1996 incident at another Russian biological research centre, the Defence Ministry's Virology Center in Sergiyev Posad near Moscow, a worker accidentally contracted the Ebola virus infection and died, Skultetskaya said.
Ebola virus is spread by contact with body fluids, including sweat and saliva. Outbreaks of the disease are rare, and [the source and vector of the virus are unknown]. Skultetskaya said the Vector Laboratory was conducting research on Ebola and Marburg viruses to develop specific vaccines.***
I wasn't aware they'd had more than one fatal lab accident. Yes, a few labs ARE working on vaccines for Ebola - not surprised Vektor is one of them.