Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
CIDRAP
sept 11 2014
Report: Bats bring Marburg virus back to Ugandan mine
Bats that have repopulated a Ugandan mine after eradication efforts in 2008 over concerns about Marburg hemorrhagic fever (MHF) also harbor Marburg virus and were likely the source of a nearby human outbreak, investigators reported in a letter yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Marburg virus is a relative of Ebola virus; both are filoviruses.
US and Ugandan researchers, including those from the CDC, found that 53 (13%) of 400 Egyptian fruit bats collected from the mine in 2012 harbored Marburg virus. In 2007, four miners contracted MHF, and one died. In response, local officials eradicated the mine's bat population by trapping and killing the animals after it was found they harbored the virus.
In 2012, a village about 12 miles away experienced the country's largest-ever MHF outbreak, involving 15 lab-confirmed cases. The current study was conducted in response to that outbreak after it was determined that bats that repopulated the mine constituted the largest colony in the vicinity.
Results of phylogenetic sequencing of isolates from three of the bats were nearly identical to sequences of isolates obtained from patients in the 2012 outbreak, indicating that bats from the mine were likely the source of the outbreak, the authors said.
Sep 10 Emerg Infect Dis letter
sept 11 2014
Report: Bats bring Marburg virus back to Ugandan mine
Bats that have repopulated a Ugandan mine after eradication efforts in 2008 over concerns about Marburg hemorrhagic fever (MHF) also harbor Marburg virus and were likely the source of a nearby human outbreak, investigators reported in a letter yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Marburg virus is a relative of Ebola virus; both are filoviruses.
US and Ugandan researchers, including those from the CDC, found that 53 (13%) of 400 Egyptian fruit bats collected from the mine in 2012 harbored Marburg virus. In 2007, four miners contracted MHF, and one died. In response, local officials eradicated the mine's bat population by trapping and killing the animals after it was found they harbored the virus.
In 2012, a village about 12 miles away experienced the country's largest-ever MHF outbreak, involving 15 lab-confirmed cases. The current study was conducted in response to that outbreak after it was determined that bats that repopulated the mine constituted the largest colony in the vicinity.
Results of phylogenetic sequencing of isolates from three of the bats were nearly identical to sequences of isolates obtained from patients in the 2012 outbreak, indicating that bats from the mine were likely the source of the outbreak, the authors said.
Sep 10 Emerg Infect Dis letter