"Ebola Reston"???

[Michael Rivero]

In article <31781A34.265B at biologie.uni-regensburg.de>,
a rose  <andreas.rose at biologie.uni-regensburg.de> wrote:
>This is the first time that I read combined names like "Ebola Reston" or 
>"Ebola Marburg". Is that a correct nomenclature? I undestand that Ebola, 
>Reston, Marburg are all different, though related Filoviruses, and that 
>Reston isn't pathogenic for humans. Am I correct when I think that "Ebola 
>Reston" is just a snappy term some journalist came up with to catch 
>attention easier?
>

  With the exception of Marburg, the filoviruses have fallen into the
group name "Ebola" with the various strains derived from the location
of the first recorded outbreak. I supose it might be valid to name the
Marburg strain Ebola Marburg, now that there are more of them, but when
discovered in Germany, it was at first assumed to be a variant on rabies.

  Ebola Reston is the version (supposedly non infectios in humans) which
erupted in a Reston, Virginia monkeyhouse (rumored to be owned by the
same company as the facility in Alice, Texas). 

  Of the other Ebolas the most feared is the strain which erupted near the
Ebola River in Zaire, which has a greater than 90% mortality rate among it's
victims. 

  Part of the confusion over strains is that the Ebola virus particle, despite
it's extreme simplicity (a single threadlike strand of DNA with a coat of 
only 7 different proteins) shows a high rate of mutation, often an 
indicator of a very new organism.

  The "reservoir" host has never been identified in nature. Only two
outbreaks ever shared a common geographic point, and that was a tourist
attraction called "Kitum Cave" on the slopes of Mount Elgon. However,
an intense search of the cave did not reveal any sign of the viruses,
and that one crossing point may have been just a coincidence.

  A study of the African outbreaks over time reveals some intersting
patterns. Ever since the first outbreak near Nairobi, the successive 
eruptions have been moving steadily westward along the Congo basin 
until the most recent outbreak in Gabon. The winds in the region 
favor neither East nor West, which makes the westward migration (to 
me) significant. 

  Unlike the AIDS virus, which follows the human population migrations 
along the Kinshasa Highway, the outbreaks of Ebola mostly followed the 
Congo River, up until the Gabon outbreak, which happened on the other side
of a mountain range from the Congo River.

  Given that the outbreak in Nairobi was brought there by a known human
vector, perhaps an animal or bird whoes range stops at the edge of the
great rift valley is the reservoir host?




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