Recurrence and reinfection--a new paradigm for the management of Ebola virus disease

C Raina MacIntyre; Abrar Ahmad Chughtai

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2015.12.011

Recurrence and reinfection--a new paradigm for the management of Ebola virus disease

Int J Infect Dis. 2016 Feb:43:58-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2015.12.011. Epub 2015 Dec 19.

Authors

C Raina MacIntyre¹, Abrar Ahmad Chughtai²

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Samuels Building, Room 325, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: r.macintyre@unsw.edu.au.
² School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Samuels Building, Room 325, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, NSW, Australia.

PMID: 26711624
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2015.12.011

Abstract

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is an understudied infection and many aspects of viral transmission and clinical course remain unclear. With over 17000 EVD survivors in West Africa, the World Health Organization has focused its strategy on managing survivors and the risk of re-emergence of outbreaks posed by persistence of the virus during convalescence. Sexual transmission from survivors has also been documented following the 2014 epidemic and there are documented cases of survivors readmitted to hospital with 'recurrence' of EVD symptoms. In addition to persistence of virus in survivors, there is also some evidence for 'reinfection' with Ebola virus. In this paper, the evidence for recurrence and reinfection of EVD and implications for epidemic control are reviewed.

Keywords: Body fluids; Ebola; Healthcare workers; Infection control; Recurrence; Reinfection.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Africa, Western / epidemiology
Convalescence
Disease Management
Disease Outbreaks / prevention & control*
Ebolavirus / physiology*
Health Personnel
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / epidemiology
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / prevention & control*
Humans
Recurrence
Survivors
World Health Organization