Ebola Virus Persistence in Semen of Male Survivors

We investigated the duration of Ebola virus (EBOV) RNA and infectious EBOV in semen specimens of 5 Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors. EBOV RNA and infectious EBOV was detected by real-time RT-PCR and virus culture out to 290 days and 70 days, respectively, after EVD onset

Persistence of Ebola virus in ocular fluid during convalescence

Please note: A correction to the original article has been published. “From New England Journal of Medicine, Jay B. Varkey, Jessica G. Shantha, Ian Crozier, Colleen S. Kraft, G. Marshall Lyon, Aneesh K. Mehta, Gokul Kumar, Justine R. Smith, Markus H. Kainulainen, Shannon Whitmer, Ute Ströher, Timothy M. Uyeki, Bruce S. Ribner, and Steven Yeh, Persistence of Ebola Virus in Ocular Fluid during Convalescence, 2015; 372:2423-2427. Copyright © (2015) Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission.Among the survivors of Ebola virus disease (EVD), complications that include uveitis can develop during convalescence, although the incidence and pathogenesis of EVD-associated uveitis are unknown. We describe a patient who recovered from EVD and was subsequently found to have severe unilateral uveitis during convalescence. Viable Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) was detected in aqueous humor 14 weeks after the onset of EVD and 9 weeks after the clearance of viremia.Supported by a grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000454, to the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute), an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness and a grant from the National Eye Institute (P30-EY06360, to the Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University School of Medicine), and a fellowship grant from the Australian Research Council (FT130101648, to Dr. Smith). Favipiravir was provided by the Department of Defense Joint Project Manager Medical Countermeasure Systems

New filovirus disease classification and nomenclature.

The recent large outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Western Africa resulted in greatly increased accumulation of human genotypic, phenotypic and clinical data, and improved our understanding of the spectrum of clinical manifestations. As a result, the WHO disease classification of EVD underwent major revision

The SCDU.

<p>(1) The private patient rooms resemble intensive care unit (ICU) rooms, with adjustable beds, intravenous (IV) fluid drips and monitors. Procedures a patient could need, from mechanical ventilation to hemodialysis, can be performed in the unit. (2) Medical staff who are providing direct patient care use a locker room to change into full-body protective suits and masks, which shield them from blood and bodily fluids. (3) Family members are able to speak with patients through glass windows in the unit; patients have access to phones and laptop computers. The windows also allow observation of procedures and detection of contamination events. (4) A dedicated laboratory that has the capacity to perform blood counts, routine chemistries, blood gas measurements, urinalysis, and tests for a variety of infectious agents was built specifically for use with the isolation unit. (5) All liquid waste is disinfected and flushed, and disposable waste is autoclaved and incinerated. At the peak of the Ebola patient’s illness, up to 40 bags a day of medical waste were produced. <i>Image credit: Emory University; illustrator: Damien Scogin; licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</i>.</p