Some West Africans could be immune to Ebola Virus

By Dustin M Braden - 08 Sep '14 21:44PM

An unknown proportion of West Africans may turn out to be immune to Ebola virus, The New York Times reports.

A Tulane University expert in hemorrhagic fevers, Robert F. Garry Jr., who works in Sierra Leone said "It's fair to say some people are immune but we don't know if it's 1 percent or 2 percent or 20 percent."

Currently, of all survivors of this year's outbreak, around 1,800 were immune to the Ebola virus. There are also a number of small studies that suggest some individuals can be infected without getting sick, probably due to some unknown genetic trait. These studies are based on people who live with victims of the Ebola virus.

However, there are some individuals with antibodies in their blood who have never seen a victim in their lives, suggesting they didn't acquire this immunity through a contact with a sick individual, the Times said.

Antibodies, proteins that are the first line of defense against "invaders", attach themselves to the viruses and stop them from penetrating into a healthy cell.

Experts still have so many unanswered questions about the scope of the immunity such as the number of Africans with antibodies, and which Africans have them, or what amount of antibodies are required to establish protection against the deadly virus. Experts still aren't sure how the immunity was acquired, but they offer some possible explanations.

Dr. Eric M. Leroy, a leading French Ebola expert who also works as a veterinarian and virologist at Gabon's International Center for Medical Research in Franceville, suggests that rural villagers might have ingested fruits that had been contaminated with infected bat saliva, and that might explain how they are "vaccinated". "We imagine that this is the main route but it's hypothesis. We do not have the evidence", he said to the Times.

Individuals with immunity to the virus might offer a chance for treatment and vaccination. The antibodies in those certain individuals' blood may be used to treat Ebola victims. However, elaborate data and research is needed, which it will be challenging to obtain given chaotic nature of the outbreak.