While the viral pathogen continues to claim lives in West Africa, health officials believe that they may have now found the source of the infection, in a hollowed out tree. After making an expedition to patient zero's-a two-year-old boy named Emile Ouamouno-hometown in Meliandou, Guinea, researchers believe that they may have found the source of Ebola in a hollow tree the young boy may have played in, which also is home to a colony of bats.
Known to most as "Hemorrhagic Fever" because of the final stages of infection, Ebola is a viral pathogen whose origins were documented during the mid-1970's outbreak in regions of Africa's Zaire and the Sudan when the virus was left untreated with a 90% incidence of fatality after transmission. Thought to have been transmitted to humans by the consumption of bushmeat, or the dead carcasses of African monkeys and fruit-foraging bats, the mysterious conditions surrounding the origins of the disease are not well-known to the African public who has dealt with the infection first-hand in recent generations.
Reemerging from the forests of the western African countries nearly four decades later, questions may arise to Ebola's origin stories, however, the viruses path of destruction has been clear within expectations.
Publishing their findings in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, a team of researchers led by Dr. Fabian Leendertz of the Robert Koch Institute in Germany believe that the Guinean forest region attracted fruit bats carrying the virus, who in turn passed the lethal Ebola onto Emile. During a four-week-long expedition in early April this past year, Leendertz and his colleagues found through blood tests and personal accounts, that the boy may have very well been infected in the hollow merely 50m from his home. And while the disease has spread across many nations and killed hundreds in its wake, the researchers were shocked to find that the secluded village of Meliandou, housing only 31 families deep within the Guinean forest region, was likely the source of the lethal disease.
According to local accounts, the tree burned on Mar. 24 of this past year, and once the tree caught fire, a "rain of bats" emerged from the hollow. And while the bats may no longer be there, ash residue and particulate matter left behind confirmed the presence and species as Mops condylurus, more commonly known as insectivorous free-tailed bats.
The researchers tested local individuals and animals/bats found within the area and came to the conclusion that the infection of the Ebola virus in bats must be rather rare and not easily transmitted amongst the species.
"That is obvious when you think about how many tons of bat meat are consumed every year" Dr. Leendertz says. "If more bats carried the virus, we would see outbreaks all the time."
"The Ebola virus must jump through colonies from bat to bat, so we need to know more."
