TY - JOUR AU - Lu, Hui-Jun AU - Qian, Jun AU - Kargbo, David AU - Zhang, Xiao-Guang AU - Yang, Fan AU - Hu, Yi AU - Sun, Yang AU - Cao, Yu-Xi AU - Deng, Yong-Qiang AU - Su, Hao-Xiang AU - Dafae, Foday AU - Sun, Yu AU - Wang, Cheng-Yu AU - Nie, Wei-Min AU - Bai, Chang-Qing AU - Xia, Zhi-Ping AU - Liu, Kun AU - Kargbo, Brima AU - Gao, George AU - Jiang, Jia-Fu T1 - Ebola Virus Outbreak Investigation, Sierra Leone, September 28–November 11, 2014 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2015 VL - 21 IS - 11 SP - 1921 SN - 1080-6059 AB - During 2014–2015, an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) swept across parts of West Africa. The China Mobile Laboratory Testing Team was dispatched to support response efforts; during September 28–November 11, 2014, they conducted PCR testing on samples from 1,635 suspected EVD patients. Of those patients, 50.4% were positive, of whom 84.6% lived within a 3-km zone along main roads connecting rural towns and densely populated cities. The median time from symptom onset to testing was 5 days. At testing, 75.7% of the confirmed patients had fever, and 94.1% reported at least 1 gastrointestinal symptom; all symptoms, except rash and hemorrhage, were more frequent in confirmed than nonconfirmed patients. Virus loads were significantly higher in EVD patients with fever, diarrhea, fatigue, or headache. The case-fatality rate was lower among patients 15–44 years of age and with virus loads of <100,000 RNA copies/mL. These findings are key for optimizing EVD control and treatment measures. KW - Ebola virus disease KW - Ebola virus KW - Sierra Leone KW - western Africa KW - epidemiologic characteristics KW - clinical features KW - virus load KW - transmission KW - viruses KW - laboratory testing KW - investigation KW - epidemiology KW - epidemic KW - outbreak KW - control measures KW - treatment DO - 10.3201/eid2111.150582 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/11/15-0582_article ER - End of Reference