New York, Dec 17 (IANS): Transmission of the deadly Ebola virus occurs in social clusters, an analysis of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa has suggested.

"Clustered transmission means that when you have an individual who has the disease and they transmit it to another individual, the next transmission is likely to be to someone who the first individual knew," said principal investigator Jeffrey Townsend, associate professor at Yale University, US.

"It is all happening within little small social networks," Townsend explained.

These findings underscore the importance of rapid contact tracing and quarantine of symptomatic individuals.

The analysis also points to the need for more public health resources, such as hospital beds, to make sure every infected individual in West Africa is quickly isolated and receives professional care.

For their analysis, the researchers reviewed both genomic and epidemiological data from the current outbreak in Sierra Leone. They found evidence of significant social clustering.

Researchers were also able to estimate that up to 70 percent of Ebola infection cases were not reported, which is significantly lower than the previous estimates.

"For Sierra Leone, underreporting is lower than some more speculative estimates that ran as high as 250 percent," Townsend noted.