ISOLATION AND PHYLOGENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF EBOLA VIRUSES CAUSING DIFFERENT OUTBREAKS IN GABON

Three outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever have recently occurred in G abon. Virus has been isolated from clinical materials from all three o utbreaks, and nucleotide sequence analysis of the glycoprotein gene of the isolates and virus present in clinical samples has been carried o ut. These data indicate that each of the three outbreaks should be con sidered an independent emergence of a different Ebola virus of the Zai re subtype. As in earlier Ebola virus outbreaks, no genetic variabilit y was detected between virus samples taken during an individual outbre ak.