Worried about AIDS?... just EATING bushmeat can cause EBOLA.

[Lamplighter]

Let's resurrect this thread from 2002...

Child's encounter with a bat may have sparked the Ebola outbreak

CBS News
Jessica Firger
12/30/14

Where and how did the deadly Ebola outbreak begin?
The disease that's killed more than 7,800 people across West Africa
may have taken hold after a chance encounter last winter between
a 2-year-old boy and wild bat in a hollowed-out tree.

New research published Tuesday in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine
provides an almost cinematic theory about the origins of the current Ebola outbreak,
and also offers new evidence that a certain type of bat may play host to the deadly virus.

The study traces the activities of Ebola "patient zero," a 2-year-old boy in Méliandou, Guinea,
who's believed to have been the virus' first victim in December 2013.

The researchers visited the village and neighboring areas, and learned from the residents
that children liked to play in a hollow tree that was home to insect-eating free-tailed bats (Mops condylurus).
These large fruit bats migrate annually to southeastern Guinea to the region of Kéléma, where Méliandou is located.
<snip>
The tree caught fire on March 24, 2014; some villagers reported
seeing a "rain of bats" escape, and a large number were collected for food.
Health officials in Guinea have speculated that bats are linked to the outbreak.
In March, Guinean officials banned the consumption of bat soup and grilled bats.

According to the researchers, free-tailed bats are believed to have been linked to previous, smaller Ebola outbreaks.
The animal has also been associated with the Marburg virus, which shares many similarities with Ebola.
Bats have been singled out for their ability to host zoonotic viruses,
which are able to make the jump from one species to another.
<snip>