Bats are the cause of Ebola virus outbreak

An outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed at least 63 people in Guinea, Africa. To prevent the spread of the deadly disease, Guinean authorities have banned the consumption of bat soup and grilled bats as well as other bat dishes because they are the source of the disease.

Bats are believed to be the source of the Ebola virus. (Source: livescience.com)

"We have discovered that bats are the intermediate hosts of the Ebola virus. We have announced a nationwide ban. People even need to stop eating rats and monkeys because they are also high risk," Remy Lamah, Guinea's health minister, told Bloomberg.

Ebola is a hemorrhagic virus. It enters the body and spreads through the blood or plasma, causing high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, internal and external bleeding. There is currently no vaccine or effective treatment, so the Ebola virus is fatal in 90% of cases (according to the US National Institutes of Health).

Medical experts believe that animals are the main hosts of the Ebola virus. There have been documented cases of the virus being transmitted from chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys to humans. Bats and other mammals also carry the virus, but they do not show any outward symptoms.

In Guinea, the Toma, Kissi and Guerze ethnic groups regularly eat bats. They are usually roasted directly over an open fire or cooked into a spicy soup with pepper and other ingredients.

Although many other animals can spread disease, bats have received particular attention from scientists in recent years because of their unusual ability to carry a wide range of viruses that can jump from one species to another.

This flying mammal is a vector for more than 60 viruses that can infect humans, and carries more pathogens than rodents.

“There must be something unique about bats that allows them to carry so many zoonotic viruses,” says David Hayman, a wildlife epidemiologist at Colorado State University.

Besides Ebola virus, bats are also intermediate hosts of viruses such as rabies, SARS, Nipah (causing brain death), Hendra (dangerously affecting the respiratory system), Marburg, Lyssa.../.

According to Vietnam+