# Science at Muse: Ebola survivors suffer long after-effects

Welcome to the program co-produced by the University of Montpellier and Divergence-FM, which takes you on a cruise through the laboratories of the Muse archipelago. This week, we're heading south to Guinea, where a new Ebola epidemic has been raging since February, believed to be caused by the reactivation of the virus in a survivor.

We talk to Eric Delaporte and Alpha Keita (live from Conakry),IRD researchers and authors of a study on long forms of Ebola.

On February 14, the WHO declared Guinea the new scene of an outbreak of the Ebola virus. Opening onto the Atlantic coast, this French-speaking West African country stretches between Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone. Back in 2013, an epidemic that also originated in Guinea claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people, leaving 10,000 survivors with significant after-effects. Before being brought under control in 2016, the virus even made inroads into the United States and Europe.

While this resurgence of the disease is not isolated, its origin is surprising the scientific community, since the index patient or patient zero could be a survivor of the previous 2013 epidemic. A paradigm shift in the way this disease is viewed, in line with the discoveries published by our two guests. Eric Delaporte is a doctor in the infectious and tropical diseases department at Montpellier University Hospital and a researcher at theInstitut de recherche pour le développement. Alpha Keita is also a virologist at the IRD, and will be speaking to us live from Conakry, where his research is currently taking him.

Both are members of the TransVIHMI team, headed by Eric Delaporte. This research unit brings together numerous specialists in HIV and, for several years now, Ebola. Together, they published an article in Clinical Infectious Diseases on February 22, highlighting the existence of long-lasting forms of Ebola disease in the Post-Ebo-Gui cohort, with symptoms still present in some survivors four years after infection. This study is the fruit of collaboration betweenInserm,IRD, the Universities of Montpellier and Conakry and the Guinean laboratory Cerfig.

La science s'aMuse, you've got the map, let's get on board!

Co-production: Université de Montpellier/Divergence-fm
Animation : Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews: Aline Périault/ Lucie Lecherbonnier
Production : Adeline Flo'ch

Listen to the "A LUM LA SCIENCE" program on Divergence FM 93.9