Sero-prevalence of Ebola and Lassa virus in the Republic of Guinea, Macenta prefecture

Abstract

Following the 2013-2016 West Africa Ebolavirus (EBOV) outbreak, a broad range of scientific research has been conducted to understand and prevent future epidemics. Our current study, supported by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), uses sero-epidemiology to look at the foot-print incidence of EBOV and Lassa virus (LASV) in the prefecture of Macen-ta located in forested Guinea. Our study assesses seroprevalence of these zoonotic viruses in bushmeat hunters and their household members. These groups of people are at risk of exposure to multiple viral zoonotic infections via constant contact with wildlife, either by hunting, trapping or butchering. In order to investigate potential historical EBOV and/or Lassa virus LASV infections, serum samples were collected from villages that were affected or unaffected by the 2013-2016 EBOV outbreak in Guinea. We performed En-zyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), western blot analysis and flow cytometry for the detection of EBOV glycoprotein (GP) and LASV nucleopro-tein (NP) antigens specific immunoglobulin G. A number of positive sam-ples were detected for both pathogens, suggesting that these two pathogens are circulating in Guinea and may cause mild or asymptomatic infection in a proportion of cases. Importantly, this study suggests EBOV may have been circulating in Guinea before the 2013-2016 outbreak