The ongoing 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak is considered to be the largest and longest outbreak ever recorded of Ebola, killing at least 932 people and infecting more than 1,700 till date since March in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Liberia.

Hence, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 8 August, 2014 declared the killer Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa an international health emergency.

Causes

EVD is caused by infection with a virus of the family Filoviridae, genus Ebolavirus. While there are five identified sub-species of Ebolavirus, four viruses cause disease in humans. They are Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), Ebola virus (EBOV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Taï Forest virus (TAFV).

The fifth virus, Reston virus (RESTV), is not considered to be disease-causing in humans.

According to WHO, EVD first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River from which the disease takes its name.

How does it spread?

It is still unclear how Ebola spreads. However, it is believed that the first pateint becomes infected through contact with an infected animal's body fluids.

Human-to-human transmission can occur through direct contact with blood, organs or other body fluids of infected people or exposure to objects such as needles and syringes that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Ebola can also be transmitted from men who have recovered from the disease through semen as it is infectious for up to 7 weeks.

Infected dead bodies can spread Ebola as they are still infectious. So mourners who have direct contact with the body of deceased person can also get the disease.

Who is most at risk?

Health-care workers who do not wear appropriate protective clothing and family members who are in close contact with infected people or deceased patients.

Signs and symptoms:

Symptoms may occur between 2 and 21 days after contracting the infection. Common signs of Ebola include:

Fever

Headache

Muscle, abdominal and joint pain

Sore throat

Weakness

Diarrhea

Vomit or cough up blood

Chest pain

Difficulty in breathing and swallowing

Rash

Hiccups

Bleeding inside and outside the body

Prevention

Currently there is no vaccine available for humans. But the infection can be controlled through the use of recommended protective measures such as:

Avoid contacting infected blood or secretions, including from those who are dead .

Using standard precautions for all patients in the healthcare setting.

Sterilizing equipment, and wearing protective clothing including masks, gloves, gowns and goggles.

Washing your hands with soaps or detergents.

Disinfecting your surroundings.

Isolate people who have Ebola symptoms.

Culling of infected animals, with close supervision of burial or incineration of carcasses.

Yet, not travelling to the areas or countries where the virus is found is the best way to avoid Ebola.

1. Illumina, Inc. (U.S.)

Illumina, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered at San Diego, U.S. Illumina, Inc. is one of the leading players in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. The company offers products for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. The company serves government laboratories, genomic research centers, academics institutions as well as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrigenomics, commercial molecular diagnostics laboratories and consumer genomics companies. Illumina, Inc. has its geographic presence in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-pacific, and others.

2. QIAGEN N.V. (Netherlands)

QIAGEN N.V. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered at Venlo, The Netherlands. The Company is engaged in providing Sample to Insight solutions that transform biological samples into molecular insights. QIAGEN provides its workflow to customers in molecular diagnostics, assay technologies, bioservices and automation systems.  The company’s genome services are suitable for custom/tailored projects that allow access to genomic sequence information.  The Company market its products in more than 100 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle-East &Africa through its subsidiaries and channel partners.

3. PerkinElmer, Inc. (U.S.)

PerkinElmer, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, the U.S. PerkinElmer, Inc. offers its products & services and solutions for the diagnostics, food, environmental, industrial, life sciences research and laboratory services markets. The company offer comprehensive genetic testing solutions that help to provide insight into the complex nature of rare and inherited diseases. Some of the subsidiaries of the company are Caliper Life Sciences, Improvision, Viacell Inc., ViaCord LLC, among many others. The company has its facilities located in Europe (France, Germany, and Belgium), U.S. and Asia (China, India, and Japan).

4. Eurofins Scientific SE (Luxembourg)

Eurofins Scientific SE was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Luxembourg, Europe. The company offers a portfolio of over 130,000 analytical methods and more than 150 million assays performed each year to establish the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability, and purity of biological substances and products, as well as carry out human diagnostic services. The company has its geographic presence across 39 countries in Europe, North and South America, and Asia-Pacific.

5. GATC Biotech AG (Germany)

GATC Biotech AG was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Constance, Germany. The company provides DNA and RNA sequencing and bioservices solutions to academics and industrial areas. It also provides next generation sequencing services including genomes, targeted (re)-sequencing, human sample sequencing, transcriptomes, metagenomes, regulomes, pre-sequencing, NGS barcode labels, and next generation sequencing technologies; and bioservices services, including bioservices tools, pipelines and workflows, compute resources, data analysis reports, and case studies. GATC Biotech AG operates as a subsidiary of Eurofins Scientific SE. It offers its products through distributors in Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, and the Czech Republic.

6. Macrogen, Inc. (South Korea)

Macrogen, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Macrogen, Inc. provides next generation sequencing services such as whole genome, de novo, exome, targeted, transcriptomics, metagenome, and epigenome sequencing.  The company also provides a variety of services such as oligo synthesis, database construction, genome research, and bioservices analysis system consulting services. Macrogen, Inc. provides genome research services in Korea and internationally.

7. Genotypic Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India)

Genotypic Technology Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India. Genotypic Technology is the first Genomics service provider in India providing Microarray, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), Bioservices and solutions to domestic/ international pharma, biotech companies and academia. The company provides its services for protocol optimization, probe designing, array layouts, project designing, and nucleic acid analysis to in-depth analysis. Genotypic Technology has its geographic presence in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America.

8. GENEWIZ, Inc. (U.S.)

GENEWIZ, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in South Plainfield, New Jersey, the U.S.; The company is a leading provider of research service in the field of Next Generation Sequencing, Sanger DNA sequencing, sequencing of bacteria and phage, gene synthesis, DNA cloning, genomics including mutation analysis, single nucleotide polymorphism, and bioservices. GENEWIZ, Inc. has its geographic presence in U.S., China, Germany, France, Japan, and the U.K.

9. Beijing Genomics Institute (China)

Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) is the world’s largest genomics organization and non-profit research institution that was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China. The Company provides a wide range of commercial next generation sequencing services and genetic tests for medical institutions, agricultural and environmental applications. The Company operates all across the globe through its subsidiaries, namely, BGI China (Mainland), BGI Asia Pacific, BGI Americas (North and South America) and BGI Europe (Europe and Africa).

10. SciGenom Labs Pvt. Ltd (India)

SciGenom Labs Pvt. Ltd was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cochin, India with offices in Chennai & Hyderabad in India, and San Francisco in the U.S. It is a Genomics R&D services company that provides genomic sequencing and NGS services to life sciences and healthcare businesses globally as well as academic and government institutions in India.

Popular mentions – MedGenome (India), DNA Link, Inc. (South Korea), Otogenetics Corporation (U.S.), Novogene Corporation (China), LGC Limited (U.K.), CD Genomics (U.S.), SeqLL, LLC (U.S.)

NCBI Hackathon specifically looking for folks who have experience in computational virus hunting or adjacent fields to identify known, taxonomically-definable and novel viruses from a few hundred thousand metagenomic datasets that we’ll put on cloud infrastructure. This event is for researchers, including students and postdocs, who are already engaged in the use of bioinformatics data or in the development of pipelines for virological analyses from high-throughput experiments. If this describes you, please apply! The event is open to anyone selected for the hackathon and willing to travel to SDSU (see below).

https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2018/11/09/ncbi-sdsu-virus-hunting-data-science-hackathon-january-2019/

Zoonotic Henipavirus

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35921459/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/OM069646,,OM069567,OM069568,OM069569,OM069570,OM069571,OM069572,OM069573,OM069574,OM069575,OM069576,OM069577,OM069578,OM069579,OM069580,OM069581,OM069582,OM069583,OM069584,OM069585,OM069586,OM069587,OM069588,OM069589,OM069590,OM069591,OM069592,OM069593,OM069594,OM069595,OM069596,OM069597,OM069598,OM069599,OM069600,OM069601,OM069602,OM069603,OM069604,OM069605,OM069606,OM069607,OM069608,OM069609,OM069610,OM069611,OM069612,OM069613,OM069614,OM069615,OM069616,OM069617,OM069618,OM069619,OM069620,OM069621,OM069622,OM069623,OM069624,OM069625,OM069626,OM069627,OM069628,OM069629,OM069630,OM069631,OM069632,OM069633,OM069634,OM069635,OM069636,OM069637,OM069638,OM069639,OM069640,OM069641,OM069642,OM069643,OM069644,OM069645,OM069646

Source: Life technologies

Address of the bookmark: http://www.lifetechnologies.com/global/en/home/communities-social/blog/blogs/sequencing-solutions-to-world-health.html?cid=social_blogseries_20130829_11098264

Annotation

https://bigd.big.ac.cn/ncov/variation/annotation

Genome wharehouse 

https://bigd.big.ac.cn/gwh/browse/index

Released Genome

https://bigd.big.ac.cn/ncov/release_genome

Download data 

ftp://download.big.ac.cn/Genome/Viruses/Coronaviridae/

Raw data

https://bigd.big.ac.cn/gsa/browse/run/?tag=Coronaviridae

Address of the bookmark: https://bigd.big.ac.cn/ncov/about

Address of the bookmark: https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/variant-analysis/tutorials/non-dip/tutorial.html

The new visrus are about one micron—a thousandth of a millimeter—in length, the newfound genus Pandoravirus dwarfs other viruses, which range in size from about 50 nanometers up to 100 nanometers. A genus is a taxonomic ranking between species and family.

Find  more at @ http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/viruses101/newly_found_pandoraviruses_hint_at

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2013/07/130718-viruses-pandoraviruses-science-biology-evolution/