Ebola-carrying bats may be heroes as well as villains

Yahoo! News ^ | November 2, 2014 | Ben Hirschler (Reuters)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

LONDON (Reuters) - Bats are living up to their frightening reputation in the world's worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects for spreading the deadly virus to humans, but scientists believe they may also shed valuable light on fighting infection.

Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming sick themselves.

While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease, especially in the forests of Africa where they migrate vast distances, it also opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in keeping killers like Ebola at bay.

"If we can understand how they do it then that could lead to better ways to treat infections that are highly lethal in people and other mammals," said Olivier Restif, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in Britain.

Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which suggest bats' capacity to evade Ebola could be linked with their other stand-out ability -- the power of flight.

Flying requires the bat metabolism to run at a very high rate, causing stress and potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have developed a mechanism to limit this damage by having parts of their immune system permanently switched on.

The threat to humans from bats comes en route to the dinner plate. Bushmeat -- from bats to antelopes, squirrels, porcupines and monkeys -- has long held pride of place on menus in West and Central Africa. The danger of contracting Ebola lies in exposure to infected blood in the killing and preparation of animals.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[Olog-hai]

Simple solution is don’t eat the bats.

[Dr. Ursus]

Bats- the new bush meat!

[Gaffer]

Flying requires the bat metabolism to run at a very high rate, causing stress and potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have developed a mechanism to limit this damage by having parts of their immune system permanently switched on.

I guess this is what tells Kaci Hickox that she can't possibly infect anyone

[elcid1970]

In the 1964 horror thriller “The Last Man on Earth” where a pandemic has transformed all humans into zombies, the lone survivor theorizes that his immunity to the disease stems from having been bitten by a bat.

The pandemic was weakened within the bat’s system & once passed on to the survivor (Vincent Price), it resulted in immunity instead of fatal illness.

Will truth prove stranger than fiction?

[wastoute]

The secret of bats has been known for a long time. They don’t maintain a 98.6 body temp.

[catnipman]

“Ebola-carrying bats may be heroes as well as villains’

It figures: Ebola is good for you after all according to the mainstream media.

“Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which suggest bats’ capacity to evade Ebola could be linked with their other stand-out ability — the power of flight.”

Great. So now the apparent cure for Ebola will have the minor side-effect of causing people to grow bat wings?

[null and void]

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your......

(Since all records of obama's past were lost in a tragic boating accident and fire, no one can be certain that the guy in the red circle isn't him...)

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Bigg Red]

Heroes? What? It’s bad enough that overpaid, immoral athletes get called “heroes”. Now we are calling bats “heroes”!?

[Coleus]

bats are animals, don’t you know that animals are more important than people.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[Veto!]

Bats are actually old bushmeat…considered delicacies by Africans forever.

I’d personally never eat a bat, not since I met a perfectly adorable pet fruit bat in Fiji. Her name was Frederika and she liked to nibble on women’s diamond rings. No, she didn’t bite fingers.

[Bigg Red]

Of course! What was I thinking?

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Smokin' Joe]

You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!