...in the White House Briefing Room!
Posted on 10/07/2009 2:57:55 PM PDT by James Oscar
Archive Number 20091006.3469 Published Date 06-OCT-2009 Subject PRO/AH> Ebola & Marburg hemorrhagic fever, Egyptian fruit bat - W. Africa
EBOLA AND MARBURG HEMORRHAGIC FEVER, EGYPTIAN FRUIT BAT - WEST AFRICA ********************************************************************* A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Fri 2 Oct 2009 Source: Bloomberg.com [edited]
Virus Hunters Find Ebola, Marburg Source in Fruit Bat ----------------------------------------------------- Scientists are closing in on the source of Ebola and Marburg [hemorrhagic fevers], 2 of the world's most-lethal infectious diseases. After a 5-year search in the jungles of Africa, an international team of virus hunters has identified a fruit bat that may be the natural host for both hemorrhage-causing diseases. Also, these viruses are more widespread than previously thought, according to their research, which will be published via an open-access BioMed Central journal.
The study, based on blood tests on more than 2000 bats in Gabon and the Republic of Congo, will help scientists solve a mystery that has confounded them for more than 30 years: which species harbor Ebola and Marburg [viruses] without getting sick. The answer may explain how the viruses persist in the environment and point to ways humans can avoid a disease that causes fatal bleeding and organ failure in at least half of cases.
"Very eminent scientists have been searching for decades to find the source," said John Mackenzie, a Melbourne-based virologist who assists the World Health Organization in its response to outbreaks. "Until you know what it is, you can't piece together the epidemiology or begin to think about managing the risks to both humans and wildlife."
Marburg hemorrhagic fever was recognized in 1967, when outbreaks occurred in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, and in the Serbian [Yugoslavian] capital, Belgrade. Cases were traced to African green monkeys imported for research and polio vaccine production. Then, 9 years later, a closely related virus was found to have sparked a deadly outbreak near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire.
Disease trackers have tested everything from snakes to guinea pigs in the search for an animal reservoir and have been repeatedly led back to caves, mines and bats. A 2005 study published in the journal Nature found evidence of symptomless ebolavirus infection in 3 species of fruit bat in West Africa, indicating that these animals may be the ones silently harboring the virus. In March [2009], scientists reported the 1st evidence directly connecting a human Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak to the putative fruit bat reservoir.
The study reported this week is the 1st to show that ebolavirus and marburgvirus are circulating simultaneously in bat populations in one country. While several human Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreaks have occurred in Gabon, no cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever have been reported there, the authors said. The presence of marburgvirus in the West African nation represents a "potential and previously unrecognized threat to humans," they said.
"These findings provide much stronger evidence for a reservoir in bats," Xavier Pourrut, a virologist at Gabon's International Center for Medical Research in Franceville and the study's lead author, said in a telephone interview. "The next step is to understand how the viruses circulate in bat populations over time." Pourrut and collaborators from the Special Pathogens Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and France's Institute for Development Research looked for evidence of previous ebolavirus and marburgvirus infection in the blood samples of 2147 bats from at least 9 species. Tests were conducted from 2003 to 2008 in 3 regions of Gabon and in the Ebola epidemic region of north Congo.
Of all the bats sampled in significant numbers, only specimens of the cave-roosting Egyptian fruit bat, or _Rousettus aegyptiacus_, were found to harbor antibodies against both ebolavirus and marburgvirus, the authors wrote, "suggesting that this species may be a natural host of both viruses." The Egyptian rousette, with a doglike face and ears, is found along the Nile River in Egypt, across Sub-Saharan Africa, eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. While some groups may occasionally roost outside in trees, the bats of this species prefer to inhabit caves, mines and tombs, and feast on fruit trees at night. These preferences give it a stronger link with the circulation of ebolavirus and marburgvirus more frequently found in rain forests, said Pierre Formenty, leader of the emerging and dangerous pathogens team at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.
Formenty was among 29 authors of a study published in July [2009] that showed Marburg virus could be isolated from seemingly healthy Egyptian fruit bats caught in Uganda's Kitaka Cave, where miners infected with the virus in 2007 had worked. While some outbreaks in humans have been directly linked to contact with bats, more evidence exists to link cases with infected apes, chimpanzees and other primates that are often consumed in Central Africa. These animals, in turn, probably got the virus by eating fruit contaminated with saliva or other bodily fluids from bats, according to Pourrut.
Once a human is infected, there is no cure for ebolavirus or marburgvirus infection. After an incubation period of about a week, victims rapidly develop high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, respiratory disorders and hemorrhaging. Death can ensue within a few days. About a quarter of Marburg hemorrhagic fever cases are fatal, whereas case fatality rates range from 50 to 80 percent with Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa.
Ebolavirus may circulate naturally within at least one other bat species and spread to members of the Egyptian rousette via contact with infected saliva left on fruit remnants, Formenty said in an interview. Also, no link with the Egyptian fruit bat was found with at least 3 Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreaks, he said. "We've got a whole lot of clues on the crossword puzzle and we're just filling the blanks now," said Bob Swanepoel, a virologist at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, who 1st sought to unravel the history of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the mid-1970s. Scientists will complete the task within a decade, he said.
[Byline: Jason Gale]
The Hot Zone.
The barking comes from the female libtards, from what I’ve seen...
The building blocks of a cure?
While some outbreaks in humans have been directly linked to contact with bats, more evidence exists to link cases with infected apes, chimpanzees and other primates that are often consumed in Central Africa. These animals, in turn, probably got the virus by eating fruit contaminated with saliva or other bodily fluids from bats, according to Pourrut.
Children can get the virus from the eating the contaminated fruit, just as apes, chimps, and other primates. And most of the outbreaks start in very isolated villages. I don't know of many that have an index case in a city.
Heh. Indeed, it seems they have been pushed to the front lines as the mouth pieces for the closely related Finagling Moonbats™.
During the second epidemic, in Angola, the first victims were children who had gathered fruit from trees where a large population of this species of fruit bat roosted. Other evidence was the fact that the capture sites chosen for this study were all located near caves harbouring sizeable groups of these bats. Moreover, the discovery of such bats that were carriers of Marburg virus in Gabon, a country where no clinical case has yet been recorded, gives an incentive for setting up surveillance and prevention measures in regions where no MHF virus epidemic has ever occurred.
When the bats roost in the fruit trees, blood, saliva, and other body fluids can contaminate the fruit. Moreover, the bats can give birth in the fruit trees, contaminating the fruit with placental blood, etc.
Looks like the source has been found. That could lead to a treatment and vaccine.
Note that almost all outbreaks had in common rainy weather, mine workings and/or caves, and people consuming 'bushmeat' was common as well, at least in the index cases for the outbreak.
It is not hard to believe that primates were consumed which had been infected through eating contaminated fruit or living in locales which the bats passed through, and then either the primates or bats were consumed directly by the locals.
Direct contact with blood, fluids in caves and mine workings is a possibility as well.
Something further: some viruses, such as hanta are found in the dried urine of mice, it is possible that dried bat guano or urine may provide a reservoir for Ebola/Marburg much like Hantavirus survives in crystalized mouse urine.
This is almost a reunion thread,lol.
Yes, it is.
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