Ebola Zaire strain mutation?

[Mike Poidinger]

tichysr at ix.netcom.com (steve tichy) wrote:

>     According to my local paper on May 15th, they had stated Ebola
>Zaire in 1976 took about seven days to incubate, but the current Kikwit
>strain is only taking four days to incubate and it is killing its
>victims faster.
>     Has anyone heard whether the Ebola Zaire strain has mutated or
>not?  Or, is it my local papers interpretation?

*sigh*  The problem with this post is the phrase 'Has the Ebola Zaire strain
mutated or not"

It implies the whole virus got up one day and completely changed from strain A
to strain B

A better question is "Is it possible that this outbreak of Ebola Zaire is being
caused by a different strain of Ebola to that which was previously seen"

The answer to which is yes, it is possible.  We already know of at least three
strains of the virus.  The existence of a fourth would come as no suprise.  The
only way to find out is to isolate the virus, and check its phenotype against
the other strains, and if that proves fruitless, compare genotypes. This could
well involve many months of constant work, and while there may be people working
on this problem, my guess is that by the time the answer is found the general
public will have moved on to the next sensational story and forgotten Ebola
completely.

Mike

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Dr Mike Poidinger      Now don't be lazy, 
Microbiology, UQ       with the pleasure of sin  (Nitzer Ebb)
Australia              
mikep at biosci.uq.oz.au  
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