Is Ebola Mutating And Becoming Stronger?

Instead of being defeated, the Ebola virus, seems to have find ways to become stronger. Researchers believe that the deadly virus might have mutated into a stronger one.
Researchers who have been keeping the spread of the Ebola virus from Guinee under strict supervision, arrived to the conclusion that the deadly virus has suffered a mutation, and scientists from the Pasteur Institute, from France, are trying to determine whether the virus has become more contagious.

Over 22.000 people have been infected with the Ebola virus out of which 8.795 have died in Guinee, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Researchers have started to analyse hundreds blood samples taken from patients from Guinee, in order to observe if the virus has changed and to determine if after the mutation, it can spread more easily from one person to another.

Researchers are aware that the virus is on a constant transition and knowing its transformation can really help with diagnose and treatment. The medical world has to know exactly how does the virus modify in order to know which is their enemy’s next move and plan, explained doctor Anavaj Sakuntabhai, a genetics specialist.
For the present moment, experts haven’t got a hold of the evolution of the virus according to the geographic position or what it does inside the human body, this means researchers need a lot more studies. Although they have noticed a certain mutation of the deadly disease. For the moment the way the virus is spreading has remained the same, and remained critical for people to avoid infected persons, stated virologist Noel Tordo, from the Pasteur Institute.

Medical experts have analysed around twenty blood samples taken from infected persons from Guinee and are expecting to receive another 600 samples for the next months.The study of the infected blood would offer them insights on the deadly disease, and show them if it has become more contagious or not.

A similar study, conducted in Sierra Leone, has shown that the Ebola virus there, has suffered a considerable mutation, for the first 24 hours of the epidemic, reported the World Health Organisation.

Health specialists, keep on assuring us that, so far no virus which spreads trough body fluids like HIV or Hepatitis B, has ever mutated to aerial transmission, and tend to believe is highly improbable for Ebola, to ever evolve to mutate to that level.
Image Source: Graphics

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Anne-Marie Jackson

Anna grew up on a steady diet of 20th century literature, science-fiction movies and Viking lore. Unsurprisingly she turned into a technology geek with an inclination for history & fantasy.