Researchers reported for the first time last week that they have found the virus in a nonprimate species — bats.
Researchers reported for the first time last week that they have found the Marburg virus in a nonprimate species — bats.
Now, they have turned their attention to a bat-infested lead and gold mine in western Uganda, in an attempt to determine if bats harbor the disease between periodic outbreaks in southern Africa. One miner working in the mine died of Marburg disease on July 14, and several others apparently recovered from it. “We’re trying to see where this goes,” Jonathan Towner, the lead author of the report, published Aug. 22 in the online journal PloS ONE, said in a telephone interview. “We need a good, solid survey of what’s living here and what might have Marburg in it.”
Dr. Towner, a microbiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is working in Ibanda, Uganda, with a group jointly sponsored by the agency, the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, a South African government group.
Because Ebola, a closely related virus, had earlier been found in bats, scientists suspected they might harbor Marburg as well. The scientists tested more than 1,100 bats of 10 species in Gabon and Congo and found the virus in four bats of the cave-dwelling species, Rousettus aegyptiacus. The bats, which range all over sub-Saharan Africa, had been trapped in 2005 and 2006 at two locations in Gabon. All of the infected animals appeared healthy.
Marburg infection in humans can be fatal. Symptoms include persistent diarrhea, high fever, bleeding from the nose, gums and vagina, and bloody vomit and feces. There have been periodic occurrences of Marburg in southern Africa during the past three decades, but no one has been able to figure out its natural reservoir — that is, where the virus hides between outbreaks.
If the researchers can confirm that the bat is the reservoir of the virus, the next question is what to do about it. “The knee-jerk reaction is to exterminate all of the bats in the mine,” Dr. Towner said. “But ecologically, that’s a bad thing to do because bats pollinate plants and eat harmful insects by the ton.”
Teaching people how to protect themselves, he continued, may be a better approach. “Wear gloves, hats, masks, and respirators and be mindful of what you stick your hands in,” he said. “And leave the bats alone.”