Via Guineematin.com, a long and detailed report: Ebola resurgence in Guinea: a recovery from 5 years ago at the base of the new epidemic? Guinea Matin. The conclusion, in Google translation:
It appears that three genomes of the virus currently circulating are strictly identical and that a fourth genome differs only at the level of a single nucleotide (substitution of a letter in the genetic code). The phylogenetic analysis, aimed at determining the degree of relatedness between the viral genomes, also showed that the 2021 sequences belong to a group of viruses that circulated during the historic epidemic that raged between 2013 and 2016.
The researchers therefore conclude that the new epidemic is the result of the resurgence of a strain that circulated in West Africa in 2013-2016 and that the low rate of mutation observed during the comparison of genetic sequences would be due to the persistence of Ebola virus, maintained in a state of latency, in a survivor.
The third report, from researchers at the Guinea Haemorrhagic Fevers Project (PFHG) laboratory in Conakry in association with their counterparts from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Hamburg (Germany), reports similar results.
In the light of the above, we could say that the 51-year-old Guinean nurse (the index case in Gouécké), who died on January 28, 2021 and was buried without any respect for the measures recommended for a safe burial, was undoubtedly contaminated. sexually by an individual infected with Ebola five years ago and who has recently had a relapse.
However, it cannot be ruled out that the nurse was infected with the virus several years ago and only developed few symptoms. In this case, she herself could have been an Ebola survivor without even knowing it and having relapsed.
