Clinical practice in critical times

摘要

As this issue went to press, the number of cases of the Zaire strain of Ebola virus (EBOV) continued to rise in West Africa. Most deaths have occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. An international group of researchers has conducted epidemiological investigations, including genetic analysis, on samples collected from Guinea in March. They state in their paper, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April (bit.ly/loiOhMU), that 'The high degree of similarity among the 15 partial L gene sequences, aLong with the three full-length sequences and the epidemiologic links between the cases, suggest a single introduction of the virus into the human population.' The first suspected case is believed to have been a two-year-old girl from Gueckedou prefecture. She died last December.