Nomenclature- and Database-Compatible Names for the Two Ebola Virus Variants that Emerged in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2014

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 6; no. 11; pp. 4760 - 4799
• Main Authors: Kuhn, Jens, Andersen, Kristian, Baize, Sylvain, Bào, Yīmíng, Bavari, Sina, Berthet, Nicolas, Blinkova, Olga, Brister, J., Clawson, Anna, Fair, Joseph, Gabriel, Martin, Garry, Robert, Gire, Stephen, Goba, Augustine, Gonzalez, Jean-Paul, Günther, Stephan, Happi, Christian, Jahrling, Peter, Kapetshi, Jimmy, Kobinger, Gary, Kugelman, Jeffrey, Leroy, Eric, Maganga, Gael, Mbala, Placide, Moses, Lina, Muyembe-Tamfum, Jean-Jacques, N'Faly, Magassouba, Nichol, Stuart, Omilabu, Sunday, Palacios, Gustavo, Park, Daniel, Paweska, Janusz, Radoshitzky, Sheli, Rossi, Cynthia, Sabeti, Pardis, Schieffelin, John, Schoepp, Randal, Sealfon, Rachel, Swanepoel, Robert, Towner, Jonathan, Wada, Jiro, Wauquier, Nadia, Yozwiak, Nathan, Formenty, Pierre
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 24.11.2014; MDPI
• Subjects: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Democratic Republic of the Congo - epidemiology; Disease Outbreaks; Ebola; Ebola virus; Ebolavirus; Ebolavirus - classification; Ebolavirus - genetics; Ebolavirus - isolation & purification; Electronic mail systems; Epidemics; filovirid; Filoviridae; Filovirus; genome annotation; Guinea; Guinea - epidemiology; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - epidemiology; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - virology; Humans; Infectious diseases; Letter; Life Sciences; Lokolia; Lomela; Makona; Medical laboratories; Medicine; Microbiology and Parasitology; mononegavirad; Mononegavirales; mononegavirus; Names; Pathogens; Phylogeny; RNA, Viral; RNA, Viral - genetics; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Terminology as Topic; Virology; virus classification; virus isolate; virus nomenclature; virus strain; virus taxonomy; virus variant; Viruses; Zoonoses; Guinea; Democratic Republic of the Congo; South Africa; France; United States > US; West Africa; Africa
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v6114760

In 2014, Ebola virus (EBOV) was identified as the etiological agent of a large and still expanding outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa and a much more confined EVD outbreak in Middle Africa. Epidemiological and evolutionary analyses confirmed that all cases of both outbreaks are connected to a single introduction each of EBOV into human populations and that both outbreaks are not directly connected. Coding-complete genomic sequence analyses of isolates revealed that the two outbreaks were caused by two novel EBOV variants, and initial clinical observations suggest that neither of them should be considered strains. Here we present consensus decisions on naming for both variants (West Africa: “Makona”, Middle Africa: “Lomela”) and provide database-compatible full, shortened, and abbreviated names that are in line with recently established filovirus sub-species nomenclatures.