Scientists trace Ebola outbreak to a tree where children play

WASHINGTON POST  by Rachel Feltman     Dec. 14, 2014 

According to research published Tuesday by the Robert Koch-Institute, fruit bats are almost certainly to blame for the current Ebola outbreak, which has claimed 7,800 lives so far. But while most outbreaks caused by a fruit bat would have someone who hunted or handled the mammal for meat to blame for the contagion, the researchers believe that this case of bat-to-human transmission was sparked by children at play.

A child under observation for signs of Ebola. (Michel du Cille/The Washington Post)

Ebola is a zoonotic disease -- one that's spread between species. The first human cases of Ebola can indeed be traced roughly to the hunting, selling, and eating of bushmeat, or wild mammals like bats and non-human primates...

But the first case of 2014's outbreak has been traced to someone who shouldn't have had much contact with bushmeat. In October, researchers reported that patient zero of the outbreak was likely a 2-year-old boy named Emile Ouamouno who lived in the Guinea village of Meliandou.

In the new study, which was published Tuesday in EMBO Molecular Medicine, researchers sleuthed around Emile's village for clues about how he'd contracted the deadly virus. They checked large local mammals, but none of them showed signs of an Ebola outbreak that could have spilled over into the human population. Bats seem more likely in this case, the researchers claim....

Read full story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/12/30/scientists-trace-ebola-outbreak-to-a-tree-where-children-play/

Read full research report.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-12/e-baa122614.php