Scientists tracking the Ebola outbreak in Guinea say the virus has mutated, reports BBC News. Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious. Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea. They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it's able to jump more easily from person to person
Geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabha says: "That's important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy." It's not unusual for viruses to change over a period time. Ebola is an RNA virus – like HIV and influenza – which have a high rate of mutation. That makes the virus more able to adapt and raises the potential for it to become more contagious.
Virologist Noel Tordo from the Institut Pasteur is in the Guinea capital Conakry. He said: "At the moment, not enough has been done in terms of the evolution of the virus both geographically and in the human body, so we have to learn more. But something has shown that there are mutations."
Researchers are using a method called genetic sequencing to track changes in the genetic make-up of the virus. So far they have analysed around 20 blood samples from Guinea. Another 600 samples are being sent to the labs in the coming months. A previous similar study in Sierra Leone showed the Ebola virus mutated considerably in the first 24 days of the outbreak, according to the World Health Organisation. It said: "This certainly does raise a lot of scientific questions about transmissibility, response to vaccines and drugs, use of convalescent plasma. However, many gene mutations may not have any impact on how the virus responds to drugs or behaves in human populations."
The research in Paris will also help give scientists a clearer insight into why some people survive Ebola, and others don't. The survival rate of the current outbreak is around 40%.
[link url="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31019097"]Full BBC News report[/link]