We Might Now Know Why Ebola Keeps Popping Up In West Africa

PUBLISHED BY ANDREW LIPTAK3 may, 2016

While the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has officially ended, isolated cases have appeared in Sierra Leoneand Guinea earlier this year, prompting worries that the virus will likely have a constant presence in the region. A new study brings up some additional concerns: the virus might lie dormant in survivors for longer than expected.

Scientists have known for a while that the Ebola virus can persist in survivors’ eyes and sperm, even after they’re recovered. Writing in the journal Science Advances, a team of scientists now believe that in some survivors, the virus can persist, reintroducing the virus to a once-uninfected region.

The scientists examined several flareups of the disease in 2015, and after examining the genetics of that particular strain of the virus, found that it wasn’t introduced by a non-human reservoir: it came from another human.

see more at: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/05/we-might-now-know-why-ebola-keeps-popping-up-in-west-africa/