Ebola Virus Epidemiology and Evolution in Nigeria

Folarin, Onikepe A.; Ehichioya, Deborah; Schaffner, Stephen F.; Winnicki, Sarah M.; Wohl, Shirlee; Eromon, Philomena; West, Kendra L.; Gladden-Young, Adrianne; Oyejide, Nicholas E.; Matranga, Christian B.; Deme, Awa Bineta; James, Ayorinde; Tomkins-Tinch, Christopher; Onyewurunwa, Kenneth; Ladner, Jason T.; Palacios, Gustavo; Nosamiefan, Iguosadolo; Andersen, Kristian G.; Omilabu, Sunday; Park, Daniel J.; Yozwiak, Nathan L.; Nasidi, Abdusallam; Garry, Robert F.; Tomori, Oyewale; Sabeti, Pardis C.; Happi, Christian T.

Containment limited the 2014 Nigerian Ebola virus (EBOV) disease outbreak to 20 reported cases and 8 fatalities. We present here clinical data and contact information for at least 19 case patients, and full-length EBOV genome sequences for 12 of the 20. The detailed contact data permits nearly complete reconstruction of the transmission tree for the outbreak. The EBOV genomic data are consistent with that tree. It confirms that there was a single source for the Nigerian infections, shows that the Nigerian EBOV lineage nests within a lineage previously seen in Liberia but is genetically distinct from it, and supports the conclusion that transmission from Nigeria to elsewhere did not occur.