Seven years after the declaration of the first epidemic of Ebola virus disease in Guinea, the country faced a new outbreak—between 14 February and 19 June 2021—near the epicentre of the previous epidemic^1,2. Here we use next-generation sequencing to generate complete or near-complete genomes of Zaire ebolavirus from samples obtained from 12 different patients. These genomes form a well-supported phylogenetic cluster with genomes from the previous outbreak, which indicates that the new outbreak was not the result of a new spillover event from an animal reservoir. The 2021 lineage shows considerably lower divergence than would be expected during sustained human-to-human transmission, which suggests a persistent infection with reduced replication or a period of latency. The resurgence of Zaire ebolavirus from humans five years after the end of the previous outbreak of Ebola virus disease reinforces the need for long-term medical and social care for patients who survive the disease, to reduce the risk of re-emergence and to prevent further stigmatization.

在宣布几内亚首次爆发埃博拉病毒病疫情 7 年后，该国在 2021 年 2 月 14 日至 6 月 19 日期间在上一次疫情的震中附近^1,2面临新的疫情。在这里，我们使用下一代测序生成完整或接近完整的扎伊尔埃博拉病毒基因组来自 12 名不同患者的样本。这些基因组与上一次爆发的基因组形成了一个得到充分支持的系统发育簇，这表明新的爆发不是动物宿主新的溢出事件的结果。2021 年谱系显示出比持续人际传播期间预期的差异要低得多，这表明持续感染伴随着复制减少或潜伏期。上一次埃博拉病毒病爆发结束五年后，扎伊尔埃博拉病毒从人类身上卷土重来，这加强了对幸存患者提供长期医疗和社会护理的必要性，以降低卷土重来的风险，并进一步预防污名化。