A virus hunter in Nigeria has thoughts on the Ebola outbreak
6/5/202620 min
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. There’s no specific treatment or vaccine for this strain, unlike the more common Zaire strain that caused the 2014 outbreak.
Molecular biologist Christian Happi has dedicated his career to improving genomic sequencing capabilities and virus monitoring across the continent of Africa. He joins Flora to discuss the challenges of the current outbreak and his vision for better disease surveillance.
Guest:
Dr. Christian Happi is a distinguished professor at Redeemer’s University and runs the Institute of Genomics and Global Health in Nigeria.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsFlora Lichtman· Host0:01
[instrumental music] Hey, it's Flora, and you're listening to Science Friday. The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. There's no specific treatment or vaccine for this strain, unlike the more common Zaire strain which caused the 2014 outbreak. Here to give us an update and put the news in context is Dr. Christian Happi. He's a molecular biologist who has dedicated his career to improving genomic sequencing capabilities and virus monitoring across the continent of Africa. Dr. Happi is a distinguished professor at Redeemers University and runs the Institute of Genomics and Global Health in Nigeria. Welcome to Science Friday. Thank you for being here.
Christian Happi· Guest0:45
Thank you.
Flora Lichtman· Host0:46
So I, I wanna start with the, I wanna start with the Bundibugyo virus. What's different about it compared to the Zaire strain?
Christian Happi· Guest0:56
The Bundibugyo virus or strain of Ebola is, uh, different from the Zaire strain simply because it has diverged. It has evolved, is, it has followed a different evolutionary path, and for that reason, the virus is quite divergent from the Zaire strain. And that divergence actually creates its own challenge because diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs are often very strain-specific because they are targeting some very specific epitopes