Bats are the cause of the Ebola virus outbreak

The outbreak of Ebola virus has killed at least 63 people in Guinea and Africa. In order to prevent this deadly disease from spreading, the government of Guinea has decided to ban people from consuming bat and roasted bats and other bat dishes as this is a source of disease.

"We have discovered bats are vectors of Ebola virus. We have announced a ban on the whole country. People even need to stop eating both rats and monkey meat because they are also at risk. High, " Remy Lamah, Minister of Health Guinea interviewed Bloomberg.

Ebola is a virus that causes bleeding . They enter and follow blood or plasma spread throughout the body, causing high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, internal bleeding and foreign hemorrhage. There is no effective vaccine or effective treatment, so Ebola virus kills 90% of cases (according to data from the US National Institute).

Bats are thought to be responsible for the transmission of Ebola virus.(Photo: livescience.com)

Medical experts believe that animals are hosts of the Ebola virus. Cases of this virus are transmitted from chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys through humans have been recorded. Bats and other mammals also carry the virus, but they have no symptoms at all.

In Guinea, the Toma, Kissi and Guerze minorities often eat bats. Usually they are baked directly on fire or cooked into a kind of spicy soup with pepper and other ingredients.

Although many other species can spread the disease, bats have been given special attention by scientists in recent years because of their unusual ability to carry many viruses that can be transmitted from this species. to another species.

This flying mammal is an intermediary of more than 60 viruses that can infect humans, and is an intermediary that carries more pathogens than rodents.

"There must be something different that bats can carry so many kinds of animal-to-human viruses," said David Hayman, an epidemiologist at Colorado State University. .

Besides Ebola virus, bats are also intermediaries for rabies, SARS, Nipah (brain death), Hendra (dangerous effects on respiratory system), Marburg, Lyssa .