Scientists says the Ebola virus is mutating and could become more contagious

 

Scientists tracking the spread of the Ebola in West Africa have warned the virus is showing signs of mutating, and could become more contagious.

 

A team of researchers from the Institute Pasteur in France first identified the outbreak in Guinea, in March last year.  Patient zero - the first person to be infected - has been identified as two-year-old Emile Ouamouno from the rural village of Meliandou.  He died four days after he fell ill with a sky-high fever and vomiting in December 2013.   Just weeks later his sister succumbed to the disease, followed by their mother and grandmother.

From there the virus spread, before the scientists at Institute Pasteur identified it as Ebola three months later after it was reported to the health authorities.

 

The team have since been tracing the virus' spread through Guinea, to establish if the disease could become more contagious.   

 

They have started the process of examining hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in the West African nation where the first cases struck in December 2013.

 

Human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai, told the BBC: 'We know the virus is changing quite a lot.

 

'That's important for diagnosing and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy.'

 

He told Radio 4's Today programme viruses have to 'fight a balance' between infecting people and spreading.

 

'We have seen several cases that don't have any symptoms at all when infected,' he said. 'These people may be the ones who could spread the virus better, we do not know yet.