The Taxonomy virus

The Ebola virus belongs to the genus Ebolavirus of the filovirus family, which also owns the Marburg virus.

Distincts4,6 five viruses are known that ICTV connected to each one of the five species of Ebolavirus. However, the taxonomy of filoviruses is new and continues to evolve with phylogenetic progress, resulting in a relative confusion between the different denominations selected as auteurs7. A well established fact in the laboratory use of Ebola synonymous such designation Ebolavirus declined in five subtypes virus8,9, while the nomenclature adopted by the ICTV, making the Ebola virus type species of Ebolavirus kind has not yet been ratified.

Names approved by ICTV virus species has changed significantly since the identification of these virus10,11,12,13,14,15. There are:

     Ebola virus itself (EBOV), species Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV once) or subtype Zaire Ebola, first identified in 1976 in Zaïre16 (now Democratic Republic of Congo) - this is the five more virulent virus, the cause of the epidemic of 2014 in Africa Ouest17;
     Sudan virus (SUDV), Sudan ebolavirus species (formerly SEBOV) or subtype Ebola Sudan, endemic in South Sudan and Uganda;
     Reston virus (RESTV), species Reston ebolavirus (formerly Rebov) or Ebola Reston subtype, found in 1983 in the area of Reston, United States;
     the Tai Forest virus (TAFV), species of ebolavirus Tai Forest, Ivory Coast ebolavirus once (CIEBOV) or subtype Ebola Tai Forest (or Ebola Ivory Coast), identified in 1994 the Tai National Park, Cote d'Ivoire, on the borders of Guinea and Liberia;
     Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), species Bundibugyo ebolavirus (formerly BEBOV) or subtype Ebola Bundibugyo, identified in 2008 in the region of Bundibugyo, Uganda.

The pathogenic nature of different filoviruses, whether gender or gender Ebolavirus Marburgvirus is very similar to the extent that these viruses have all been associated with outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates with identical symptoms. They however differ from the genetic point of view, with a nucleotide sequence ranging from 30 to 40% of a strain to another, which results in a very different between the severity pathologies in man induced by these virus - lethality can be no humans to Reston virus, but approaching 90% for the Ebola virus - although environmental factors may also explain these differences.

Reston virus was isolated in 1989 in Cynomolgus Monkeys in the Philippines. Also present in China, it is less pathogenic in non-human primates and we thought it would not affect humans until it identifies a transmission from pigs to humans in 2009.

Bundibugyo virus, discovered in 2008, is more akin to Taï4 Forest virus, but is more virulent than the latter.