Biotech

A virus has showed near the foothills of western Uganda. It named Bundibugyo. Bundibugyo resembles no other previously discovered strains. Based on an outbreak about a year ago, 35% of people infected with Bundibugyo die, says Jonathan Towner, a microbiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, who was part of a team that identified the virus. “If there was a disease spreading in North America with that kind of case fatality that would be a big deal,” he says. Other strains of Ebola previously discovered in Sudan and Zaire can kill more than 90% of people.

When Towner’s team received samples of the virus from Uganda, their initial line of tests for previously known Ebola strains turned up negative, he says. “It was clearly Ebola virus, but it was not something we had seen before,” he says. How to kill the virus by the way? Bundibugyo’s DNA sequence differs from those of other Ebola viruses by about 32% of its nucleotide letters, Towner’s team found. A virus gene important for recognition by our immune system differs by about 25%. This could be enough to pose problems for vaccines and drugs to treat Ebola, but it is too early to say, Towner explains.

The team hopes to return to the region, and determine the natural reservoir for Bundibugyo virus. Several species of fruit bats have turned out to be the reservoir for other species of Ebola. “That would be the top of the list,” he says. The unique terrain of the region – an equatorial mountain range – could explain why Bundibugyo virus has only produced one outbreak.

“You have a piece of geography that’s quite unique,” he says. So lets hope together this Bundibugyo won’t come spread wide and wider, huh?

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