A Mutation in the Ebola Virus-Austin Wallace

Scientists have identified a mutation that allows the Ebola virus to better enter human cells and infect people. The study also highlights how rapidly the Ebola virus can adapt in a host population. As the 2013 Ebola virus spread, it mutated, and some of those mutations, the team noted, “proliferated because they conferred an advantage to the virus.” The second study came to a similar conclusion. The team noted that because the virus infected a huge number of people, it was likely able to mutate and adapt to humans becoming more deadly as the outbreak progressed.They found that twice as many people died later in the outbreak from the newer strain, compared with people infected with the earlier strain. This mortality rate doesn’t necessarily mean that the virus was twice as deadly to an individual, rather it means that the virus had mutated to be able to infect more the virus had mutated to be able to infect more people in the same period of time. That, in turn, allowed the virus to mutate and become better at infecting humans. It outlined that minor changes in the virus’s DNA can impact how it infects hosts.

This is very unsettling news. While modern medical advancements here in the United States, along with other developed countries, allow us to stop outbreaks before they become pandemics, other countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone do not have the resources to do the same. This is just another obstacle in an already difficult fight. This is similar to the black plague that spread across Europe in the 14th century, in that they, like many of these struggling countries, lacked the medical ability to stop it.

http://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2016/11/3/13513256/ebola-virus-2013-outbreak-west-africa-guinea-liberia-sierra-leone