re: #331 Varek Raith

It’s certainly possible.
However, extremely unlikely.
cdc.gov

JULIE STEENHUYSEN: I have a quick question about, you mentioned briefly mutations. I know there was a study that also showed the virus is mutating some. I’m wondering if you’re following up or what do we know about whether or not this virus has mutated in a way that makes it easier, more transmissible?

TOM FRIEDEN: This is one of the things we’re looking into. In general, the Ebola virus has not changed a lot over the 40 plus years that we’ve known it. So that’s somewhat reassuring. And that it’s not one of those viruses that changes frequently. But that doesn’t guarantee it won’t in the future. So one of the things our laboratory specialists will be doing with the advanced molecular detection initiative is to sequence viruses overtime from individual patients and over time in the outbreak to see if there are changes. That will take some time to do and we’ll have to track it to see if there are changes. But right now we don’t see any evidence that there is a change that would make it more transmissible. On the phone? Next question on the phone?