Ebola genetic code analysed to show evolution of worst ever outbreak

THE GUARDIAN   by Ian Sample                                                                             June 18, 2015

Scientists have analysed the genetic code of Ebola viruses from patients across west Africa and pieced together the evolution of the worst ever outbreak of the killer disease.

Experts from Public Health England at Porton Down in Britain, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and other leading labs, used DNA from 179 Ebola samples to reconstruct the spread of the virus from Guinea into surrounding countries last year.

The study found that the initial outbreak had been dying out in Guinea in early 2014 and might have been contained had the international community diagnosed Ebola just one month earlier than it did. The outbreak has so far recorded 27,000 cases and killed more than 11,000 people.
...“The initial containment was nearly successful. If we’d been out there not at the end of March, but in February, maybe this would never have happened,” said Miles Carroll, head of microbiology research at Public Health England. “We could have stopped a lot of health workers and patients from becoming infected.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/17/ebola-genetic-code-analysed-evolution-worst-outbreak

 NATURE MAGAZINE

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14594.html