Ebola virus - epidemiology, diagnosis, and control: threat to humans, lessons learnt, and preparedness plans - an update on its 40 year's journey.
Ebola virus (EBOV) is an extremely contagious pathogen and causes lethal hemorrhagic fever disease in man and animals. The recently occurred Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks in the West African countries have categorized it as an international health concern. For the virus maintenance and transmission, the non-human primates and reservoir hosts like fruit bats have played a vital role. For curbing the disease timely, we need effective therapeutics/prophylactics, however, in the absence of any approved vaccine, timely diagnosis and monitoring of EBOV remains of utmost importance. The technologically advanced vaccines like a viral-vectored vaccine, DNA vaccine and virus-like particles are underway for testing against EBOV. In the absence of any effective control measure, the adaptation of high standards of biosecurity measures, strict sanitary and hygienic practices, strengthening of surveillance and monitoring systems, imposing appropriate quarantine checks and vigilance on trade, transport, and movement of visitors from EVD endemic countries remains the answer of choice for tackling the EBOV spread. Herein, we converse with the current scenario of EBOV giving due emphasis on animal and veterinary perspectives along with advances in diagnosis and control strategies to be adopted, lessons learned from the recent outbreaks and the global preparedness plans. To retrieve the evolutionary information, we have analyzed a total of 56 genome sequences of various EBOV species submitted between 1976 and 2016 in public databases.
a ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Raj Kumar
RK
Singh
b Division of Pathology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Kuldeep
K
Dhama
c Division of Biological Standardization, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Yashpal Singh
YS
Malik
d Division of Virology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Muthannan Andavar
MA
Ramakrishnan
e Divison of Bacteriology and Mycology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Kumaragurubaran
K
Karthik
f Department of Biochemistry and Genetics , Barkatullah University , Bhopal , India.
Rekha
R
Khandia
g Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology , College of Veterinary Sciences, Deen Dayal Upadhayay Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwavidyalay Evum Go-Anusandhan Sansthan (DUVASU) , Mathura , India.
Ruchi
R
Tiwari
f Department of Biochemistry and Genetics , Barkatullah University , Bhopal , India.
Ashok
A
Munjal
b Division of Pathology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Mani
M
Saminathan
h Immunology Section, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Swati
S
Sachan
b Division of Pathology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Perumal Arumugam
PA
Desingu
c Division of Biological Standardization, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute , Bareilly , India.
Jobin Jose
JJ
Kattoor
i School of Engineering and Science, Tecnologico de Monterrey , Monterrey , Mexico.
Hafiz M N
HM
Iqbal
j Cellular Immunology Lab , Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics , School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences, Old Dominion University , Norfolk , VA , USA.
Sunil Kumar
SK
Joshi
D000818:Animals; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control; D029043:Ebolavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D014765:Viral Vaccines; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission
D014765:Viral Vaccines
Ebola hemorrhagic fever; Ebola virus; carriers; control; diagnosis; epidemiology; preparedness; public health; transmission; treatment; vaccines