Ebola Virus May Hide in Bats, Research Finds
Posted on: Friday, 2 December 2005, 12:00 CST
By Lawrence K. Altman
Since it was discovered in 1976, the Ebola virus has killed more than 1,200 people in scattered outbreaks in Central Africa, the World Health Organization calculates. But while health workers have managed to contain the outbreaks, scientists have been frustrated that they do not know the virus's hiding place in nature. Now an international team of scientists has found evidence of symptomless Ebola infection in three species of fruit bats, adding to earlier suggestions that they are the likely reservoir.
Working at the International Medical Research Center in Franceville, Gabon, the scientists from France, South Africa and Thailand found fragments of the Ebola virus, or evidence of an immune response to it, among bats in both Gabon and Congo. Fruit bats are eaten by people in Central Africa, according to the report, which is to appear Thursday in the journal Nature.
Although the findings show that bats may play a role in transmitting the virus to primates and people, more evidence will be needed "to conclude that they are the natural reservoir of the disease," said Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in Geneva.
Earlier studies showed that bats could be infected with Ebola virus, suggesting that they might be carriers.
The researchers, led by Eric Leroy, caught and tested 1,030 small animals in areas near where infected gorilla and chimpanzee carcasses were found in outbreaks from 2001 to 2003.
The trapping included 679 bats. The scientists found either evidence of the immune globulin (G) protein specific to Ebola virus in the blood, or fragments of the virus in the liver or spleen, in three species of bats Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris torquata.
Each species lives in a wide region, including areas where Ebola outbreaks have occurred, Leroy's team said.
Source: International Herald Tribune
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