EBOLA Patient admitted to Austin hospital for Ebola-like symptoms

[mala]

If, and only if the survivor has developed enough antibodies to combat the virus in his system (and we can't be sure of that for circa 60 days), can he be said to be 'free' of the virus, which isn't technically correct. It's much the same as the flu, chicken pox, and shingles viruses, one only holds the virus at bay, even if otherwise healthy.

Artie.

I read an article (can't remember now) that indicated there were actually two levels of immune system involvement with ebola - the extracellular antibodies which aren't produced until very late in the disease (which is why the antibody tests come up negative early on) but also an immune response inside the cells. It was the "inner" cell response that ebola was overriding, which is why it was able to continue to reproduce and eventually kill the body even with the presence of extracellular antibodies. This is worrisome, because it means once the virus is systemic, the antibody response will not be as useful as in other diseases.

If it is able in this way to evade the antibody response, then what is the mechanism that causes some people to survive?

Am I off base in my understanding?