Tracing the Ebola Outbreak, Scientists Hunt a Silent Epidemic

NEW YORK TIMES  by Sheri Fink, MD                         May 5, 2015

(Contains new information on the origin of the Ebola epidemic.)

Scientists are using blood samples collected throughout the Ebola outbreak to map the virus’s spread from country to country by tracking tiny mutations in its gene sequences.

The picture is not yet complete, but intriguing discoveries have been made. Virus mutations first detected in Sierra Leone last spring were found later in Liberia and Mali, and scientists are examining whether this resulted from the chance movements of people across borders....

Sierra Leone’s silent epidemic of illness and death can be traced back to late February 2014 with the sickness of a woman named Sia Wanda Koniono. She fell ill in the Kailahun district when she returned to the country after traveling in Guinea, according to people close to her. Ms. Koniono crossed back to Guinea for medical treatment, where she died. Others exposed to her there were later confirmed to have Ebola, said Dr. Michel van Herp of Doctors Without Borders.

A report by officers working for the World Health Organization and Guinea, which has not been made public, shows that officials there knew in March about Ms. Koniono’s probable Ebola death and the illness of her daughter. However, this information was never followed up on by tracing their contacts across the border in Sierra Leone, according to local officials....

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/health/frontline-tracing-the-ebola-outbreak.html