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Is Ebola Evolving Into a More Deadly Virus?
By Richard Preston
5:00 A.M.
Is Ebola Evolving Into a More Deadly Virus?
Excerpts:
"...As the epidemic progressed, a team of researchers, led by Pardis Sabeti, a genomic scientist at Harvard and the Broad Institute, studied the genetic code of various samples of Ebola taken from the blood of people who had been infected. They found that the virus began mutating as soon as it got into people. “From the outset, I was intrigued by the large number of mutations we found,” Sabeti told me. Makona Ebola quickly developed into several basic varieties. Then, in late May, 2014, one of the lineages took off like a wildfire and spread rapidly all over Sierra Leone and Liberia. This lineage is named the A82V Makona Variant of Ebola. For simplicity, I’ll call it the Makona mutant. The majority of patients in the epidemic were infected with the Makona mutant, including all eleven individuals in the United States. Meanwhile, the other lineages of Ebola died out. It seemed that the Makona mutant had somehow beaten them in a contest for survival...."
"...Right now, there may be around six hundred people in eastern Congo who have Kivu Ebola particles replicating in their bodies. As Ebola re-creates itself, many of the resulting particles are deformed duds and can’t replicate further. The ones that can copy themselves are infective. The Kivu swarm, with its three new lineages of Ebola, may amount to about one or two quadrillion infective particles of the virus. If these particles were collected in one place, they would fill three teaspoons and would weigh about fifteen grams. That small space contains numberless genetic possibilities. The longer the outbreak is allowed to continue, the greater the chances that Ebola will mutate, get better at spreading in humans, and vastly enlarge its circle of victims...."
By Richard Preston
5:00 A.M.
Is Ebola Evolving Into a More Deadly Virus?
Excerpts:
"...As the epidemic progressed, a team of researchers, led by Pardis Sabeti, a genomic scientist at Harvard and the Broad Institute, studied the genetic code of various samples of Ebola taken from the blood of people who had been infected. They found that the virus began mutating as soon as it got into people. “From the outset, I was intrigued by the large number of mutations we found,” Sabeti told me. Makona Ebola quickly developed into several basic varieties. Then, in late May, 2014, one of the lineages took off like a wildfire and spread rapidly all over Sierra Leone and Liberia. This lineage is named the A82V Makona Variant of Ebola. For simplicity, I’ll call it the Makona mutant. The majority of patients in the epidemic were infected with the Makona mutant, including all eleven individuals in the United States. Meanwhile, the other lineages of Ebola died out. It seemed that the Makona mutant had somehow beaten them in a contest for survival...."
"...Right now, there may be around six hundred people in eastern Congo who have Kivu Ebola particles replicating in their bodies. As Ebola re-creates itself, many of the resulting particles are deformed duds and can’t replicate further. The ones that can copy themselves are infective. The Kivu swarm, with its three new lineages of Ebola, may amount to about one or two quadrillion infective particles of the virus. If these particles were collected in one place, they would fill three teaspoons and would weigh about fifteen grams. That small space contains numberless genetic possibilities. The longer the outbreak is allowed to continue, the greater the chances that Ebola will mutate, get better at spreading in humans, and vastly enlarge its circle of victims...."
