There are dozens of mysterious viruses in developing countries that could spread to the Western world or be used by terrorists. In light of this, Israeli researchers have joined counterparts in Uganda to try to understand the pathogens and the best way to fight them.
Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev were the first in the world to go to Uganda and study blood samples from victims of the ebola virus - which killed nearly 300 people four years ago. They plan to go back for a second visit soon.
Two Ugandan virologists are here for the first time attending a BGU conference on bioterrorism. They are Julius Lutwama and Elly Rwaguma of the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe.
The institute in Entebbe and BGU now have a formal cooperation agreement on the study of such viruses.
The two-day International Workshop on Defense to Biological Threats and Homeland Security, which ended on Thursday, was organized by BGU scientists Robert Marks and Leslie Lobel with help from the Ministry of Science and Technology, National Institute of Biotechnology director Prof. Irun Cohen and BGU health sciences faculty dean Prof. Rivka Carmi. Top scientists from Germany, Russia, Uganda, the US and Israel attended.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Lutwama, a 45-year-old virologist and entomologist, said he was most interested in learning about biosensors to detect the presence of dangerous viruses early, before they kill large numbers of people.
Marks, from BGU's biotechnology engineering department, lectured on glowing fiber optic biosensors he pioneered that enable rapid detection of pathogens. Among them are biosensors for hepatitis C developed with Yonat Shemer-Avni, which detect antibodies in the blood of patients that could not be picked up by the standard assay. Marks is developing an ebola virus detection test with Lobel and a test for agro-terrorism with Menachem Banai of the Kimron Veterinary Institute at Beit Dagan. Lobel believes that the most effective way to control deadly infectious viral diseases such as ebola and smallpox is with human monoclonal neutralizing antibodies, since traditional antiviral treatments are rather ineffective and mass vaccination is dangerous and impractical in some cases.
In 2000, Lutwama and Rwaguma went to the Gulu region, the site of an outbreak of ebola that killed some 300 people and left fewer than 100 survivors. BGU funded an expedition to Gulu to draw blood specimens from 50 of them.
Lobel explained that because most virologists in the Western world have no access to enigmatic African viruses, they have not studied them. "In Uganda they've isolated hundreds of viruses that were unknown to the rest of the world, including the West Nile virus."
Lutwama said that "at the moment, ebola is not active, but two months ago, there was an outbreak in Sudan, where a number of people died."
Ebola is spread by contact with body fluids, and most of the victims were women who took care of sick people.
"Suddenly people started bleeding from their mouths and eyes and then anywhere on their skin. But people didn't reach the hospital early enough," Lutwama said. "There is no cure, but rehydration therapy and antibiotics, which deal with additional infections due to a weakened immune system, could have saved some of them."
His Entebbe lab is also maintaining surveillance of other viruses, such as onyong-nyong, which is usually not fatal but makes the victim feel like all his bones are broken, making it impossible for him to move. The virus is transmitted by same species of mosquitoes that spread malaria.
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