Just in time for the one-year anniversary of Ebola, the open-access Public Library of Science journal on-line has published research that arose from our outbreak. Here are two clips from news reports today:
From Science News:
A species of Ebola virus that emerged in Uganda in November 2007 is unlike any other, scientists report in the November PLoS Pathogens. A team of U.S. and Ugandan researchers collected and analyzed blood samples from people infected in and around the town of Bundibugyo and found that last year's outbreak of hemorrhagic fever there resulted from a previously unknown Ebola species, tentatively called Bundibugyo ebolavirus. The virus infected roughly 100 people, of whom 37 died, says virologist Jonathan Towner of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
From AFP:
The newly-discovered species came to light after VHF erupted in the townships of Bundibugyo and Kikyo in November 2007, says the study, authored by US and Ugandan doctors.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested 29 blood samples, which were negative to high-sensitivity tests tailored to the three known strains of Ebola virus. But the samples tested positive in an older, broad-spectrum antibody assay. Intrigued, investigators pulled apart the pathogen's genetic code to see what they had snared. Using ultra-fast sequencing technology, they decoded the virus' genome in a matter of days, finding a variation of 32 percent compared with the three existing strains. Of the 149 suspected cases of Bundibugyo ebolavirus, 37 were fatal, translating into a mortality rate of 36 percent.
The wide genetic divergence between the strains has major implications, the authors say. It will require the invention of new diagnostic tools to detect outbreaks and could complicate the quest for vaccines and treatments.
So as the hot winds of drier season blow us into December, and my kids begin playing Christmas carols, I find my heart and thoughts harking back to the events of last November. It was a year ago next week that we went to Kikyo and saw patients ourselves, and days later that the outbreak was confirmed to be Ebola. Christmas and death have become inextricably intertwined.
4 comments:
I too have thought so much about the events of one year ago. I don;t think I will ever forget all that happened. Though I am far away from Bundibugyo now, you, Jennifer and Scott, and the entire BGO team, are in my thoughts daily. The one-year anniversary only intensifies my thoughts and my longings to return. I'll be speaking at a church next weekend regarding the Ebola outbreak, one year ago on the day that the Ebola outbreak was announced.
I miss you and the people of Bundibugyo dearly.
even though it is you who have to deal with your hearts and sorrows and mourning, still there are people outside thinking of you, praying for you and also remebering this last november and december.
i'm not known to you and you are just known to me by your blogging, be sure you are in my thoughts and prayers...
Recently I've found myself surrounded by an unexpected heaviness and realized this weekend that I too am beginning to recall the events of those days that were unfolding a year ago... Despite all the deaths, Jonah's of course being the most personal and painful, I praise God for your lives and thank him for the good that He continues to bring forth out of what was a terrible situation.
Dear Scott and Jennifer,
It took me a while to put together these thoughts and maybe no one will see this now but I pray it will edify someone, increase my love for Jesus, and most importantly glorify the Lord and Savior.
When I first saw the title of your posting, I thought "Oh no! Not again!" How thankful I was to read that the ebola in the news was a historical assessment and not a new outbreak.
Then I was touched by your comment that Christmas and death have become inextricably intertwined. It reminded me of a sermon I once heard about the very first Christmas gifts - the things that the three wise men brought the young Lord Jesus. (Matthew 2:11). The preacher assessed the 3 gifts as follows:
1) the gold was the means to provide for the needs of the family when Joseph had to give up his trade and take them on the exodus to Egypt to escape the murderous intentions of Herod (Matthew 2:13).
2) the frankincense was consistent with an offering to the Lord (Leviticus 2:1-2, 15, 16; 6:15; 24:7; )
3) but the myrrh, while it is cited in the Old Testament in conjunction with perfumes, especially in the Song of Solomon (which many understand to be an allegorical love poem between the Lord and His bride, the church), was to be best understood by looking at two verses in the New Testament, Mark 15:23 ("And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.) and John 19:39 ("And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.") Myrrh was mixed with wine to help deaden the pain of those condemned to crucifixion and it was also mixed with aloes to serve as burial spices. Therefore, according to this preacher, the gift of myrrh was already pointing forward to Jesus' death.
So I believe you made a very meaningful comment about how Christmas and death have become inextricably intertwined. I think they always have been.
("For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45))
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