# Science at Muse: Long-term effects among Ebola survivors
Welcome to the program co-produced by the University of Montpellier and Divergence-FM, which takes you on a tour of the laboratories of the Muse archipelago. This week, we’re heading south to Guinea, which has been grappling with a new Ebola outbreak since last February—an outbreak believed to have originated from the reactivation of the virus in a survivor.
We discuss this with Eric Delaporte and Alpha Keita (live from Conakry), researchers atthe IRD and authors of a study on long-term Ebola.
On February 14, the WHO declared Guinea the site of a new Ebola outbreak. Located on the Atlantic coast, this French-speaking West African country is bordered by Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. As early as 2013, an epidemic that also originated in Guinea claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people and left 10,000 survivors with significant long-term health effects. Before it was brought under control in 2016, the virus even attempted to spread to the United States and Europe.
While this resurgence of the disease is not an isolated case, its origin has surprised the scientific community, as the index patient—or patient zero—may be a survivor of the previous 2013 outbreak. This represents a paradigm shift in how we view this disease, building on the findings published by our two guests. Eric Delaporte is a physician in the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at Montpellier University Hospital and a researcher atthe French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). Alpha Keita is also a virologist at the IRD; he will speak to us live from Conakry, where his research currently has him stationed.
Both are members of the TransVIHMI team, led by Eric Delaporte. This research unit brings together numerous specialists in HIV and, for several years now, in Ebola. Together, they published an article on February 22 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases highlighting, within the Post-Ebo-Gui cohort, the existence of long-term forms of Ebola with symptoms still present in some survivors four years after their infection. The study is the result of a collaboration betweenInserm,IRD, the Universities of Montpellier and Conakry, and the Guinean laboratory Cerfig.
For more information:
- Press release from Inserm
- Study: Mamadou Saliou Kalifa Diallo, Abdoulaye Toure, Mamadou Saliou Sow, Cécé Kpamou, Alpha Kabinet Keita, Bernard Taverne, Martine Peeters, Philippe Msellati, Thierno Alimou Barry, Jean-Francois Etard, René Ecochard, Eric Delaporte, Understanding the long-term evolution and predictors of sequelae of Ebola virus disease survivors in Guinea: A 48-month prospective, longitudinal cohort study (PostEboGui), Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2021;, ciab168.
Science is Fun—you’ve got the ticket, let’s go!
Co-production: University of Montpellier/Divergence-fm
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Director: Adeline Flo’ch
Tune in to the show “A LUM LA SCIENCE” on Divergence FM 93.9
