Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link
Volume 10, Number 1—January 2004
Research

Ecologic and Geographic Distribution of Filovirus Disease

A. Townsend Peterson*Comments to Author , John T. Bauer*, and James N. Mills†
Author affiliations: *University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA; †Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Main Article

Table

Virus, location, dates, geographic coordinates, and literature citation for filovirus-caused hemorrhagic fever occurrences

Virus Country Apparent origin Dates Latitude Longitude Reference
Ebola Ivory Coast Cote d’Ivoire Tai National Park Nov. 1994 5.850
5.900 -7.367
-7.317 (7,24)
Ebola Ivory Coast Cote d’Ivoire or Liberia Plibo (Liberia) Dec. 1995 4.589 -7.673 (25)
Ebola Sudan Sudan Nzara June–Nov 1976 4.643 28.253 (3)
Ebola Sudan Sudan Nzara July–Oct 1979 4.643 28.253 (4)
Ebola Sudan Uganda Gulu Oct 2000–Feb 2001 2.783 32.300 (26)
Ebola Zaire DRC Yambuku Sept–Oct 1976 2.817 22.233 (2)
Ebola Zaire DRC Bonduni June 1977 2.967 19.350 (10)
Ebola Zaire Gabon Minkebe, Dec 1994–Feb 1995 1.733 12.817 (8)
Mekouka, 1.400 12.983
and/or Andock 1.483 12.917
Ebola Zaire DRC Kikwit Jan–Jul 1995 -5.058 18.909 (11)
Ebola Zaire Gabon Mayibout Feb 1996 -1.117 -13.100 (8)
Ebola Zaire Gabon Booue Jul 1996–Mar 1997 -0.100 -11.95 (8)
Ebola Zaire Gabon and DRC Ekata Dec 2001–2002 0.706 14.275 (12)
Marburg Zimbabwe Wankie?a Feb 1975 -18.367 26.483 (6)
Marburg Kenya Nzoia or Mt. Elgon Jan 1980 0.450 34.617 (19)
Marburg Kenya Mt. Elgon? 1987 1.133 34.550 (20)
Marburg DRC Durba Apr 1999–Sept. 2000 3.117 29.583 (27–29)

aReported location where patient received a “bite.” Although some investigators felt the disease was related to the bite, the patient had traveled widely in Zimbabwe and parts of South Africa and was exposed to wildlife at several locations in Zimbabwe (6).
DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo; WHO. World Health Organization.

Main Article

References
  1. Murphy  FA, Peters  CJ. Ebola virus: where does it come from and where is it going? In: Krause RM, editor. Emerging infections: biomedical research reports. San Diego: Academic Press; 1998. p. 375–410.
  2. Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976. Bull World Health Organ. 1978;56:271–93.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  3. Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Sudan, 1976. Bull World Health Organ. 1978;56:247–70.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  4. Baron  RC, McCormick  JB, Zubeir  OA. Ebola virus disease in southern Sudan: hospital dissemination and intrafamilial spread. Bull World Health Organ. 1983;61:997–1003.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  5. Bertherat  EJ, Renaut  AA, Nabias  RJ, Dubreuil  G, Georges-Courbot  M-C. Leptospirosis and Ebola virus infection in five gold-panning villages in northeastern Gabon. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1999;60:610–5.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  6. Conrad  JL, Isaacson  M, Smith  EB, Wulff  H, Crees  M, Geldenhuys  P, Epidemiologic investigation of Marburg virus disease, southern Africa, 1975. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1978;27:1210–5.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  7. Formentry  P, Boesch  C, Wyers  M, Steiner  C, Donati  F, Dind  F, Ebola virus outbreak among wild chimpanzees living in a rain forest of Cote d'Ivoire. J Infect Dis. 1999;179:S120–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  8. Georges  AJ, Leroy  E, Renaut  AA, Benissan  CT, Nabias  RJ, Trinh Ngoc  M, Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Gabon, 1994–1997: epidemiologic and health control issues. J Infect Dis. 1999;179:S65–75. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  9. Hayes  CG, Burans  JP, Ksiazek  TG, del Rosario  RA, Miranda  ME, Manaloto  CR, Outbreak of fatal illness among captive macaques in the Philippines caused by an Ebola-related filovirus. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1992;46:664–71.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Heymann  DL, Weisfeld  JS, Webb  PA, Johnson  KM, Cairns  T, Berquist  H. Ebola hemorrhagic fever: Tandala, Zaire, 1977–1978. J Infect Dis. 1980;142:372–6.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  11. Khan  AS, Kweteminga  T, Heymann  DL, Le Guenno  B, Nabeth  P, Kerstiens  B, The reemergence of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995. J Infect Dis. 1999;179:S76–86. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  12. Leroy  E, Souquiere  S, Rouquet  P, Drevet  D. Re-emergence of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Gabon. Lancet. 2002;359:712. DOIGoogle Scholar
  13. Miranda  ME, Ksiazek  TG, Retuya  TJ, Khan  AS, Sanchez  A, Fulhorst  CF, Epidemiology of Ebola (subtype Reston) virus in the Philippines, 1996. J Infect Dis. 1999;179:S115–9. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  14. Arata  AA, Johnson  B. Approaches toward studies on potential reservoirs of viral haemorrhagic fever in southern Sudan (1977). In: Pattyn SRS, editor. Ebola virus haemorrhagic fever. New York: Elsevier; 1978. p. 191–200.
  15. Germain  M. Collection of mammals and arthropods during the epidemic of haemorrhagic fever in Zaire. In: Pattyn SRS, editor. Ebola virus haemorrhagic fever. New York: Elsevier; 1978. p. 185–9.
  16. Leirs  H, Mills  JN, Krebs  JW, Childs  JE, Akaibe  D, Woollen  N, Search for the Ebola virus reservoir in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Reflections on a vertebrate collection. J Infect Dis. 1999;179:S155–63. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  17. Swanepoel  R, Leman  PA, Burt  FJ, Zachariades  NA, Braack  LEO, Ksiazek  TG, Experimental inoculation of plants and animals with Ebola virus. Emerg Infect Dis. 1996;2:321–5.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  18. Turell  MJ, Bressler  DS, Rossi  CA. Lack of virus replication in arthropods after intrathoracic inoculation of Ebola Reston virus. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1996;55:89–90.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  19. Smith  DH, Johnson  BK, Isaacson  M, Swanepoel  R, Johnson  KM, Killey  M, Marburg-virus disease in Kenya. Lancet. 1982;1:816–20. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  20. Murphy  FA, Kiley  MP, Fisher-Hoch  SP. Filoviridae: Marburg and Ebola viruses. In: Fields BN, Knipe DM, editors. Virology. New York: Raven Press, Ltd.; 1990. p. 933–42.
  21. Clayton  DH, Moore  J. Host-parasite co-evolution. General principles and avian models. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1997.
  22. Peterson  AT, Sanchez-Cordero  V, Beard  CB, Ramsey  JM. Ecologic niche modeling and potential reservoirs for Chagas disease, Mexico. Emerg Infect Dis. 2002;8:662–7.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  23. Peterson  AT, Stockwell  DRB, Kluza  DA. Distributional prediction based on ecological niche modeling of primary occurrence data. In: Scott JM, editor. Predicting species occurrences: issues of scale and accuracy. Washington: Island Press; 2002. p. 617–23.
  24. Le Guenno  B, Formentry  P, Wyers  M, Guonon  P, Walker  F, Boesch  C. Isolation and partial characterisation of a new strain of Ebola virus. Lancet. 1995;345:1271–4. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  25. World Health Organization. Suspect cases of Ebola in Liberia. Press Release 11 December 1995. Available from: URL: http://www.who.int/archives/inf-pr-1995/r95-90.html
  26. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever—Uganda, August 2000–January 2001. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2001;50:73–7.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  27. Bertherat  EJ, Talarmin  A, Zeller  H. [Democratic Republic of the Congo: between civil war and the Marburg virus]. Med Trop. 1999;59:201–4.
  28. Zeller  H. [Lessons from the Marburg virus epidemic in Durba, Democratic Republic of the Congo (1998–2000)]. Med Trop. 2000;60:23–6.
  29. World Health Organization. Marburg disease in Democratic Republic of Congo—update 2. Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response Disease Outbreak News. 6 May 1999.
  30. Stockwell  DRB, Peters  DP. The GARP modelling system: problems and solutions to automated spatial prediction. International Journal of Geographic Information Systems. 1999;13:143–58. DOIGoogle Scholar
  31. Stockwell  DRB, Noble  IR. Induction of sets of rules from animal distribution data: A robust and informative method of analysis. Math Comput Simul. 1992;33:385–90. DOIGoogle Scholar
  32. Stockwell  DRB. Genetic algorithms II. In: Fielding AH, editor. Machine learning methods for ecological applications. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1999. p. 123–44.
  33. MacArthur  R. Geographical ecology. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press; 1972.
  34. Anderson  RP, Lew  D, Peterson  AT. Using intermodel variation in error components to select best subsets of ecological niche models. Ecol Modell. 2003;162:211–32. DOIGoogle Scholar
  35. Anderson  RP, Laverde  M, Peterson  AT. Using niche-based GIS modeling to test geographic predictions of competitive exclusion and competitive release in South American pocket mice. Oikos. 2002;93:3–16. DOIGoogle Scholar
  36. Anderson  RP, Laverde  M, Peterson  AT. Geographical distributions of spiny pocket mice in South America: insights from predictive models. Glob Ecol Biogeogr. 2002;11:131–41. DOIGoogle Scholar
  37. Feria  TP, Peterson  AT. Using point occurrence data and inferential algorithms to predict local communities of birds. Divers Distrib. 2002;8:49–56. DOIGoogle Scholar
  38. Stockwell  DRB, Peterson  AT. Controlling bias in biodiversity data. In: Scott JM, editor. Predicting species occurrences: issues of scale and accuracy. Washington: Island Press; 2002. p. 537–46.
  39. Stockwell  DRB, Peterson  AT. Effects of sample size on accuracy of species distribution models. Ecol Modell. 2002;148:1–13. DOIGoogle Scholar
  40. Peterson  AT. Predicting species’ geographic distributions based on ecological niche modeling. Condor. 2001;103:599–605. DOIGoogle Scholar
  41. Peterson  AT, Ball  LG, Cohoon  KC. Predicting distributions of tropical birds. Ibis. 2002;144:e27–32. DOIGoogle Scholar
  42. Peterson  AT, Cohoon  KC. Sensitivity of distributional prediction algorithms to geographic data completeness. Ecol Modell. 1999;117:159–64. DOIGoogle Scholar
  43. Peterson  AT, Papes  M, Kluza  DA. Predicting the potential invasive distributions of four alien plant species in North America. Weed Sci. In press.
  44. Peterson  AT, Sanchez-Cordero  V, Soberon  J, Bartley  J, Buddemeier  RH, Navarro-Siguenza  AG. Effects of global climate change on geographic distributions of Mexican Cracidae. Ecol Modell. 2001;144:21–30. DOIGoogle Scholar
  45. Peterson  AT, Soberon  J, Sanchez-Cordero  V. Conservatism of ecological niches in evolutionary time. Science. 1999;285:1265–7. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  46. Peterson  AT, Vieglais  DA. Predicting species invasions using ecological niche modeling. Bioscience. 2001;51:363–71. DOIGoogle Scholar
  47. Peterson  AT, Scachetti-Pereira  R, Hargrove  WW. Potential distribution of Asian longhorned beetles (Anoplophora glabripennis) in North America. Am Midl Nat. 2004. In press.
  48. Georges-Courbot  M-C, Sanchez  A, Lu  C-Y, Baize  S, Leroy  E, Lansout-Soukate  J, Isolation and phylogenetic characterization of Ebola viruses causing different outbreaks in Gabon. Emerg Infect Dis. 1997;3:59–62.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  49. Peters  CJ, Johnson  ED, Jahrling  PB, Ksiazek  TG, Rollin  PE, White  J, In: Morse SS, editor. Emerging viruses. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1993. p. 159–75.

Main Article

1Although filovirus taxonomy undergoes frequent revision, we follow nomenclature most recently established by the International Committee of Taxonomy of Viruses in 2002. Filoviruses consist of two genera. The genus Marburgvirus contains one species, Lake Victoria marburgvirus, with several recognized strains, and Ebolavirus contains four species: Ivory Coast ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, and Zaire ebolavirus. For simplicity, we refer to the viruses using the unitalicized vernacular (e.g., Ebola Zaire). We use “Ebola viruses” to refer in general to members of Ebolavirus and “Marburg viruses” to refer in general to members of Marburgvirus. The diseases caused by filoviruses are termed Ebola hemorrhagic fever (HF; diseases caused by Ebola viruses) and Marburg HF (diseases caused by Marburg viruses).

Page created: December 21, 2010
Page updated: December 21, 2010
Page reviewed: December 21, 2010
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
file_external