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Ebola virus, one cause of hemorrhagic fever, can kill 70 percent or more of patients in a week or less. Outbreaks expand by person-to-person spread of virus to close contacts in home and health care settings. This study analyzed 24 asymptomatic people who had repeated, unprotected close contact with Ebola-infected people during 2 outbreaks of Ebola-virus infection in Gabon during 1996. Serial samples of contacts' blood were taken during a 1-month period following their first exposure to Ebola patients.
Eleven of 24 asymptomatic contacts developed IgG and IgM antibody responses specific to Ebola virus. Using a reverse-transcriptase PCR assay, the investigators detected viral RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 7 of these 11 people. A…