Ebola


Taxonomy
(ssRNA viruses)
Order: Mononegavirales
Family: Filoviridae
Genus: Ebolavirus
NCBI Taxonomy ID:205488
ICTV Taxonomy History

Epidemiology
Associated diseases: Hemorrhagic fever
Host: Human, monkeys, bats
Distribution: Africa
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  • Ebola virus from Mali Blood Sample<br><h6>By NIAID [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</h6>
  • Ebola virus particles

About Ebola

Ebola, previously known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus strains. Ebola can cause disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). Ebola is caused by infection with a virus of the family Filoviridae, genus Ebolavirus. There are five identified Ebola virus species, four of which are known to cause disease in humans: Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus); Sudan virus (Sudan ebolavirus); Taï Forest virus (Taï Forest ebolavirus, formerly Côte d’Ivoire ebolavirus); and Bundibugyo virus (Bundibugyo ebolavirus). The fifth, Reston virus (Reston ebolavirus), has caused disease in nonhuman primates, but not in humans. Ebola viruses are found in several African countries. Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, outbreaks have appeared sporadically in Africa. The natural reservoir host of Ebola virus remains unknown. However, on the basis of evidence and the nature of similar viruses, researchers believe that the virus is animal-borne and that bats are the most likely reservoir. Four of the five virus strains occur in an animal host native to Africa.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Other Ebola virus online resources


HFV-Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses database has curated nucleotide and protein sequence alignments, with information as the genus, species and outbreak ViPR search tools-The Virus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource database has useful resources with information on Ebola viruses, such as multiple sequence alignments or phylogenetic trees
UCSC Ebola Portal-UCSC Ebola Genome Browser with viral sequences from previous outbreaks as well as the 2014 outbreak Filovir-Website dedicated to people interested in filovirus research
CDC-Website of Center for Disease Control and Prevention of United States with several information on Ebola Virus NCBI Ebolavirus-Retrieve, view, and download Ebolavirus nucleotide and protein sequences