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.
Pursuing the newest origin of the viral pathogen deep within the forests of West Africa, health officials believe that they may have found the source of the infection in a hollowed out tree. But the issue is far more complex than many would like to think.
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 patient zero-a two-year-old boy named Emile Ouamouno. 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 in the small forest village of Meliandou, Guinea. 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.
But the while the bats may be the original problem, their deaths could in turn lead to many more human casualties than the West African nations would have with the Ebola outbreak alone. 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. And as the fruit bats are the main predators to another vector pest, mosquitoes, taking out the bats could spell something even worse for the people of West Africa.
A problem for decades now, mosquitoes thrive in West Africa passing blood infections from one host to the next. But most importantly is the lethal transmission of malaria from these insect pests. So while Leendertz and his colleagues do believe that bats may very well be the cause of one viral outbreak, their elimination would merely segway into another.
"We need to find ways to live together with the wildlife" Leendertz says. "These bats catch insects and pests, such as mosquitoes, and they can eat about a quarter of their body weight in insects a day."
"Killing them would not be a solution [because] you would simply have more malaria."
