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Ebola vaccine trials to begin in West Africa 1:47
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US officials say two studies of experimental Ebola vaccines are due to begin in West Africa within weeks.
- Sky News
- 24 Jan 2015
- News/World
The Ebola virus ... conservationists have warned of its impact on gorilla and chimpanzee populations. Picture: AP Photo/Centers for Disease Control Source: CourierMail
AS EBOLA deaths in West Africa start to stabilise, conservationists have raised concern about the devastating impact that the virus has had on the continent’s ape populations.
It is estimated that chimpanzee and gorilla numbers are down a third on their 1990s levels because of Ebola outbreaks.
The news comes as the World Health Organisation revealed a levelling off new ebola notifications in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea — 150 last week, down from 550 notifications in a week at the peak of the outbreak.
The UK Telegraph quoted a report from ecologist Ria Ghai for the Jane Goodall Institute, in which she stated that “wild ape epidemics tend to go unnoticed for months or even years”.
Mortality rate of 77 per cent ... Chimpanzee mother and baby. Source: Getty Images
Mortality rate of 95 per cent ... Gorilla. Picture: Jay Town Source: News Corp Australia
The mortality rate from ebola among ape species is extremely high, partly due to the fact that apes are tactile with one another, which aids the spread of the disease.
The mortality rate for gorillas is 95 per cent and for chimpanzees it’s 77 per cent, the Telegraph reported.
The recent outbreak, which has killed over 8500 people in West Africa, was believed to have been spread by infected fruit bats, but conservationists believe that the disease can jump from ape species to humans if infected animals are butchered.
The World Wildlife Fund has also highlighted the issue, pointing to an ebola outbreak in Gabon in 1994 which they said wiped out the world’s second-largest protected population of gorillas and chimpanzees.