UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - Ebola Update

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

Ebola Update

The BBC has news this week that says that genetic factors could play an important role in whether people survive the Ebola virus according to US scientists.

A study of mice infected with the virus found they showed a number of different symptoms, with 19% remaining unaffected by the disease.

This could explain why some people recover from the illness while others die in pain, the scientists said in a report published in the journal Science.

Scientists from the universities of Washington and North Carolina, and the National Institute of Health in Montana, examined mice they had infected with the same species of Ebola virus causing the current outbreak in West Africa.

They have concluded that it may not be necessary to completely eliminate Ebola virus from the body during infection to ensure that there is no disease.

Although all the mice lost weight in the first few days after infection, nearly one in five regained that weight within two weeks and showed no evidence of the disease.

But 70% of the mice became very ill, some showing signs of liver inflammation and a larger group having blood that took too long to clot.

These mice also had internal bleeding, swollen spleens and changes in liver colour and also had a greater than 50% chance of dying from the disease.

Another study published in Science, on how best to stop the transmission of the Ebola virus, concluded that funerals were "super-spreader events".

Researchers from Yale University, Oregon State University and Liberia, said funeral practices - which often involve washing, touching and kissing of the bodies - had to end in order to bring the disease under control.

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

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