Background: Zaire Ebolavirus disease (EVD) outbreaks can be controlled using rVSV-ZEBOV vaccination and other public health measures. People in high-risk areas may have pre-existing antibodies from asymptomatic Ebolavirus exposure that might affect response to rVSV-ZEBOV. Therefore, we assessed the impact pre-existing immunity had on post-vaccination IgG titre, virus neutralisation, and reactogenicity following vaccination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreaks caused by persistent EBOV infection raises questions on the role of zoonotic spillover in filovirus epidemiology. To characterise filovirus zoonotic exposure, we collected cross-sectional serum samples from bushmeat hunters (n = 498) in Macenta Prefecture Guinea, adjacent to the index site of the 2013 EBOV-Makona spillover event. We identified distinct immune signatures (20/498, 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeven years after the declaration of the first epidemic of Ebola virus disease in Guinea, the country faced a new outbreak-between 14 February and 19 June 2021-near the epicentre of the previous epidemic. Here we use next-generation sequencing to generate complete or near-complete genomes of Zaire ebolavirus from samples obtained from 12 different patients. These genomes form a well-supported phylogenetic cluster with genomes from the previous outbreak, which indicates that the new outbreak was not the result of a new spillover event from an animal reservoir.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLassa fever is a rodent-borne disease caused by Lassa virus (LASV). It causes fever, dizziness, vertigo, fatigue, coughing, diarrhea, internal bleeding and facial edema. The disease has been known in Guinea since 1960 but only anectodical acute cases have been reported to date.
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