EU scientists target flesh-eating virus

Date: 28/02/02

By Peter Chapman

EU-FUNDED researchers are claiming a breakthrough in the fight against Ebola - the lethal flesh-eating virus causing terror across Africa.

Outbreaks of the disease - thought to have originated in apes - have killed more than 1,000 people on the continent since the early 1990s.

Efforts to combat Ebola have failed due to poor detection methods; often it ravages a town or village before doctors can send blood samples off to far-flung laboratories while locals flee and spread the infection.

Now EU scientists, led by Frenchman Vincent Deubel and researchers from the Mérieux-Pasteur Research Centre in Lyon, have spent €500,000 developing a low-cost portable system that accurately tests victims' blood for the virus on the spot.

European Commission R&D expert Michel Pletschette said the test, which uses high-tech magnets to isolate genes in the virus, has already been tried during an ongoing outbreak in Gabon. He said it would allow specialists to rush to the scene of an outbreak and treat victims in isolation before they can infect others - preventing a spiral of infection, panic and death.

Once identified, the virus - which causes massive internal and external bleeding and break-up of body tissue - is still likely to be fatal. But Pletschette said identifying victims earlier could make it easier to treat them with anti-bodies from people found to be immune to the virus.

Scientists have been aware of Ebola since 1976, when it caused deadly human epidemics in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. After a long absence, the virus reappeared in 1994, affecting six territories in Africa: Côte d'Ivoire in 1994, DRC in 1995, Uganda in 1999, and Gabon in 1994, 1995 and 1996.

EU-funded researchers are claiming a breakthrough in the fight against the Ebola virus.