People who die of Ebola probably remain infectious for at least a week after death, according to a new study.
The findings underscore how important it is to safely handle and bury corpses in the epidemic.
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RNA from decayed virus was detectable for up to 10 weeks. The RNA itself was not infectious, but it showed that diagnostic tests could work for that long.
The study was done to see how long human bodies remained dangerous and how long it was possible to tell if an ape found decaying in a forest had died of Ebola rather than of something else. Ape die-offs often presage human Ebola epidemics.
