Medical workers wearing protective suits take part in a training prior to leave to countries affected by the Ebolas virus, in an empty factory warehouse in Amsterdam, on November 5, 2014 where medicals aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) created a mock clinic. The disease has killed nearly 5,000 people, almost all of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. AFP PHOTO/ANP/BAS CZERWINSKI-netherlands out- (Photo credit should read BAS CZERWINSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
The African Centres for Disease Control (CDC) said on Thursday.
Gene sequencing has shown that the current outbreak is the result of a resurgence of a strain that previously circulated in West Africa, the head of the Africa CDC Ebola team, Merawi Aragaw, said during a media briefing.
“This is really a concern. It means that the virus can last longer in (Ebola) survivors than it had been presumed before,’’ Merawi said.
Scientists had previously assumed that the virus can only survive for several months inside the body of a healed Ebola patient, not for several years, Merawi said.
More than 11,000 people were killed during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreaks, which mostly affected the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Guinean authorities announced the outbreak of a new Ebola epidemic in February, while the Democratic Republic of Congo also recently reported a new outbreak, the Central African country’s twelfth.
So far, 30 Ebola cases have been detected in both countries, 12 in Congo and 18 in Guinea, according to the CDC.
The Ebola virus causes a fever and often leads to massive internal bleeding and fatalities. (NAN)
