Scientists from the US Army’s Infectious Disease Research Institute have discovered that following treatment of people with Ebola fever ends, the deadly virus can remain in their brains and other parts of the body for a long time.
The journal Science Translational Medicine notes that studies conducted on monkeys have shown that the virus remains active.
The researchers note that the ability of the Ebola virus to cause recurring infections is known. But it was not known where it hid in the human body. It has been shown that the virus is able to disappear even following treatment with monoclonal antibodies.
The researchers discovered that regarding 20 percent of the rhesus macaques that recovered from Ebola, using monoclonal antibodies, had persistent infection. Because the virus was hidden in the ventricular system of the brain, which contains the cerebrospinal fluid. The survival of the virus in this environment causes inflammation and cell death.
The researchers noted that two macaques died as a result of a relapse of hemorrhagic fever. And they discovered that the body parts of these animals, with the exception of the brain, were not infected. A similar picture has been observed in humans with Ebola fever. For example, a British nurse contracted meningoencephalitis, nine months following recovering from Ebola. Another patient treated with monoclonal antibodies died six months later.
According to the researchers, all this confirms the need to monitor patients’ condition periodically even following they have recovered from Ebola fever.
