A new research report has found a new hide-out for the virus: the lungs. This relates to a medical case involving a healthcare worker. The case, as The Washington Post reports, relates to a health-care worker who was infected in Sierra Leone. The person was then moved to a hospital in Rome for treatment. After a period of time the patient appeared to recovery, with no trace of the virus found in the patient’s blood plasma. However, further medical examination found the virus lurking in the man’s lower respiratory tract. This was in the form of both viral RNA and viral replication markers.
The Ebola virus epidemic made headlines around the world due to the high to the death toll among hundreds of people from four African countries, as well as infecting several international aid workers. Ebola is a serious viral infection with a high mortality rate; common signs of the disease include bleeding from mucous membranes and puncture sites. If the infected person does not recover, death due to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome occurs.
With the medical case, the presence of the virus in the lungs of the patient was found five days after the infection appeared to have cleared. Later it was found that the virus had caused significant lung injury. The respiratory association represents something new and a focus for new research.
The medical case has been reported to the journal PLOS Pathogens. The paper is titled “Detection of Viral RNA in Tissues following Plasma Clearance from an Ebola Virus Infected Patient.”
