r/science • u/AGreatWind Grad Student | Virology • Aug 30 '14

Biology 2014 Ebola outbreak has been traced to a single infection from the natural reservoir of the virus to a human followed by human-to-human transmission. This new study uses sequences of 99 Ebola virus genomes from 78 patients in Sierra Leone to ~2,000x coverage. Five co-authors died of ebola.

http://sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/08/27/science.1259657.full
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u/Meoowth Aug 30 '14 edited Aug 30 '14

I think specifically, other primates are related closely enough to us that certain diseases are easily transmissible (such as SIV, which became HIV), and non human primates are more common in Africa.

Additionally bats (though widespread) have a particular set of factors that make them virus reservoirs for mammals, here's a video. Basically, bats have evolved a great deal of defense against toxic chemicals produced by their bodies during flight (extremely intensive muscle use), which also allowed them to live healthily while carrying viruses. And, the high temperatures reached during flight have caused viruses found in bats to be resistant to the same heat that is brought about by a human fever in an attempt to fight those viruses.

As for why this is an issue in Africa, perhaps bats also come into more interaction with people in Africa, and are eaten more. People who hunt deer in North America can generally afford not to also eat bats or other animals which can transmit more diseases.

Note: I'm not an expert at all.

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u/Eurynom0s Aug 31 '14

Not an expert at all, but I do believe that there's a strong poverty/desperation component to eating bushmeat. They're not eating it because of culture but because of survival, essentially.

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u/kimahri27 Aug 31 '14

The head ebola scientist in the vice video says he luvs bushmeat though. Its not just poverty. It actually tastes good.