Dr. Ediga B Farouk
Ebola virus disease laboratory diagnosis is crucial to outbreak response efforts; However, it is still extremely difficult to develop risk-free and speedy testing strategies for this pathogen with a high biosafety level in environments with limited resources. Diagnostic techniques have shifted toward faster, more accurate molecular assays ever since the 1976 discovery of the Ebola virus through conventional viral culture methods and electron microscopy. Importantly, efforts to support decentralized diagnostic testing capacity that can be utilized at or close to the point of care for patients have increased alongside technological advancements. The unprecedented scope of the West Africa Ebola epidemic in 2014 and 2015 sparked a lot of innovation in this area. A number of new diagnostic platforms have made it into the field, and they have the potential to change how outbreaks are handled in the future and immediately improve surveillance efforts in West Africa. We discuss the development of Ebola virus disease diagnostic testing and initiatives to establish field diagnostic laboratories during previous outbreaks in this review. Then, we go over the difficulties in diagnosing the epidemics of 2014 and 2015 and go over a lot of new diagnostic tests that might help solve some of these problems in the future. In 1976, there were two simultaneous outbreaks of acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Ebola virus, with 284 cases in Nzara and 318 in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Up until 2013, there have been approximately 20 additional outbreaks involving nearly 2500 cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo since these initial cases.
KeywordsEbola virus disease; Diagnostic techniques; laboratory diagnosis; testing; conventional viral culture; microscopy
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