Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research, Viral Infections and Vectors, Zoonotic diseases and public health · 2014 · ScienceStephen Gire,
Augustine Goba,
Kristian G. Andersen,
Rachel Sealfon,
Daniel J. Park,
Lansana Kanneh,
Simbirie Jalloh,
Mambu Momoh,
Mohamed Fullah,
Gytis Dudas,
Shirlee Wohl,
Lina Moses,
Nathan L. Yozwiak,
S Winnicki,
Christian B. Matranga,
Christine M. Malboeuf,
James Qu,
Adrianne D. Gladden,
S. F. Schaffner,
Xiao Yang,
Panpan Jiang,
Mahan Nekoui,
Andrés Colubri,
Moinya Coomber,
Mbalu Fonnie,
Alex Moigboi,
Michael Gbakie,
Fatima Kamara,
Veronica Tucker,
Edwin Konuwa,
Sidiki Saffa,
Josephine Sellu,
Abdul A. Jalloh,
Alice Kovoma,
James Koninga,
Ibrahim Mustapha,
Kandeh Kargbo,
Momoh Foday,
Mohamed Yillah,
Franklyn Kanneh,
Willie Robert,
James L.B. Massally,
Sinéad B. Chapman,
James Bochicchio,
Cheryl I. Murphy,
Chad Nusbaum,
Sarah Young,
Susan J. Birren,
Donald S. Grant,
John S. Scheiffelin,
Eric S. Lander,
Christian Happi,
Sahr M. Gevao,
Andreas Gnirke,
Andrew Rambaut,
Robert F. Garry,
Sheik Humarr Khan,
Pardis C. Sabeti In its largest outbreak, Ebola virus disease is spreading through Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. We sequenced 99 Ebola virus genomes from 78 patients in Sierra Leone to ~2000× coverage. We observed a rapid accumulation of interhost and intrahost genetic variation, allowing us to characterize patterns of viral transmission over the initial weeks of the epidemic. This West African variant likely diverged from central African lineages around 2004, crossed from Guinea to Sierra Leone in May 2014, and has exhibited sustained human-to-human transmission subsequently, with no evidence of additional zoonotic sources. Because many of the mutations alter protein sequences and other biologically meaningful targets, they should be monitored for impact on diagnostics, vaccines, and therapies critical to outbreak response.
