1999/02/01 by Pierre Formenty, Christophe Boesch, Monique Wyers +5 · 300 citations
Medicine · #Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research #Virology and Viral Diseases #Mosquito-borne diseases and control #Outbreak #Ebola virus #Serology #Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever #National park #Demography #Cote d ivoire #Attack rate #Confidence interval #Veterinary medicine #Medicine #Biology #Virology #Immunology #Internal medicine #Ecology #Antibody #Humanities
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/514296
published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases 179(s1), S120-S126 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 1999/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
An outbreak of Ebola in nature is described for the first time. During a few weeks in November 1994, approximately 25% of 43 members of a wild chimpanzee community disappeared or were found dead in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. A retrospective cohort study was done on the chimpanzee community. Laboratory procedures included histology, immunohistochemistry, bacteriology, and serology. Ebola-specific immunohistochemical staining was positive for autopsy tissue sections from 1 chimpanzee. Demographic, epidemiologic, and ecologic investigations were compatible with a point-source epidemic. Contact activities associated with a case (e.g., touching dead bodies or grooming) did not constitute significant risk factors, whereas consumption of meat did. The relative risk of meat consumption was 5.2 (95% confidence interval, 1.3-21.1). A similar outbreak occurred in November 1992 among the same community. A high mortality rate among apes tends to indicate that they are not the reservoir for the disease causing the illness. These points will have to be investigated by additional studies.