Medical experts have linked the current outbreak of Ebola in Guinea to a survivor who carried the disease for 5 years before infecting someone anew. The findings, a shocking one, has been attributed to viral persistence, a phenomenon where a virus remains dormant or hidden in its host for long periods until reactivated by a trigger.
Viral persistence is possible because the virus can hide in locations within the human body that will not be attacked by the white blood cells such as the bone marrow, the testicles, and some organs such as the eyes.
In this case, the scientists believe the survivor passed on the virus through semen to a new host based on the genetic analysis that was conducted from the strains of the new outbreak in Guinea by scientists from Nebraska Medical Center, University of Edinburgh, the Institut Pasteur in Senegal and also Guinea.
Several strains from the current outbreak were compared with those from the initial outbreak in 2014 to 2016 with the hypothesis that this may be a new strain from natural causes but the scientists discovered that the new strain was quite similar to those from the previous epidemic almost five years away, with a minimal number of mutations.