Bats May Have Helped Cause Ebola Outbreak

CBC News reported that the first Ebola victim — a two-year-old Guinean boy who died in December 2013 — may have gotten the disease from bats while hunting or playing with them in a hollow tree near his home.

As quoted in the market news:

Research published in the EMBO Molecular Medicine journal finds that the single transmission, from bat to boy, was then spread human to human.

Since the epidemic began, scientists have not been able to determine the cause, though many believe fruits bats were a ‘natural reservoir’ of the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

The EMBO study has expanded the range of possible Ebola sources to include insectivorous bats — the species that were in and around the hollow tree where Ouamouno played. Insectivorous bats have previously been discussed as potential Ebola sources, and the study says ‘experimental data have shown that this species can survive experimental infection​.’

Researchers are also leaning more toward insectivorous bats because they found no large colony of fruit bats near Meliandou.

Click here to read the full CBC News report.