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Scientists have found evidence of the death of the Ebola virus in a bat in Liberia. This is the first time that the virus is detected in a bat in West Africa, researchers said Thursday and officials said.
A team of scientists working with the Liberian government presented its findings in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. This discovery represents a major breakthrough in understanding the origins of human cases of Ebola, one of the biggest unresolved issues around these outbreaks, said Jonathan Epstein, scientist at EcoHealth Alliance, a global non-profit organization that is part of the research team.
No human cases of Ebola are linked to this discovery, scientists said. Liberia has not had any new human cases since the end of the 2014-2016 epidemic that devastated West Africa, killing more than 11,000 people in Liberia, in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Bats have long been suspected of being a natural reservoir or animal host for Ebola, which means that the virus can live and grow inside animals without hurting them. But more than 40 years and more than two dozen outbreaks after the emergence of the Ebola virus in Central Africa, researchers still do not know what animal or animals carry it, let alone how it is transmitted to humans.
"It has been very difficult to get definitive evidence," Epstein said.
The findings add to the evidence suggesting that bats could serve as a natural vector of wildlife for Ebola, scientists said. The team discovered genetic material from the virus and antibodies in the bat's blood, indicating the animal's immune response to the infection.
But Epstein and others warned that much more research was needed. Scientists tested samples from 150 bats Mineopterus inflatus in northeastern Liberia. But only one of these bats has been tested positive, Epstein said.
If this species of bat, known as long-fingered bat, turns out to be a natural host of the virus, scientists expect to find more than one bat with antibodies against the virus, he said. It is also possible that the bat is infected by another species living in the same habitat, he said.
The bats Mineopterus inflatus live in caves, mines and forests and eat insects. They are about the size of a small mouse and have a wingspan of 12 inches.
Other experts have said that many more studies are needed to find out if this species of bat is a natural host.
The virus is naturally present in the ecology of West Africa
"These are not useless information, but they are not quite convincing of reservoir status," said Tom Ksiazek, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Department in Galveston, a specialist in cancer viruses. haemorrhagic fever, such as Ebola.
"It's a step in the right direction," said Ksiazek. "This suggests that the virus is naturally present in the ecology of West Africa."
Most experts say that the natural animal host for Ebola is a kind of fruit bat, not insects, he said. Previous evidence of Ebola in bats has all been in dogfish, said Ksiazek. Most noteworthy is that a tiny fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus, has been found to host the Marburg virus, a close and equally formidable cousin of the Ebola virus.
Scientists write a research paper on their discovery. But Liberian officials did not want to wait for publication, which may take a year, before publishing this information, Epstein said. Officials want to use this information to reinforce the public health message to Liberians to avoid bats to prevent a possible infection. Bats can excrete the virus in saliva, urine and stool. Animals are also a common source of food; handling or eating infected animals can also transmit the virus.
According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa began with a simple transmission of an animal to a two-year-old boy in a village isolated from Guinea. Scientists still do not know exactly how the child was infected, but researchers say it probably involved contact with wild animals. According to a WHO report on the epidemic released in 2015, he was seen playing near a hollow tree heavily infested with bats.
Scientists at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, who is part of the team, are trying to determine if the virus found in the bat is exactly the same virus that caused the disease. West Africa outbreak and the current outbreak of Ebola in Congo, which is the second. – Biggest ever registered. According to the Congolese Ministry of Health, at least 713 cases and 439 deaths were recorded Wednesday.
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