History of filoviral disease outbreaks

Abstract

Filoviruses are considered to be “emerging pathogens” [799, 806, 1542]. This means that they are either truly novel or hitherto unknown agents, or the incidence of their appearance among susceptible populations has considerably increased. Thus far, filoviruses are known to be endemic only in Africa and (probably) the Philippines, and the disease outbreaks they have caused seem to have been rather localized — several, but not all outbreaks were terminated through human intervention [2785]. Numerous smaller outbreaks of filoviral disease may have occurred in the past but gone unrecognized due to lack of diagnostic capabilities, inadequate medical systems or training, or lack of access to health facilities. Moreover, locally recognized filoviral disease outbreaks might not have been reported because of limited communication between rural and better-equipped urban hospitals. Functional disease surveillance systems in Africa, although urgently needed, are largely unavailable, or do not target VHFs [1928, 2309, 2310].