« GAO: Be more realistic when you plan | Main | American science slipping? Maybe, maybe not »

Sourcing Marburg

In their paper titled Marburg Virus Infection Detected in a Common African Bat, Towner et al describe an extensive evaluation of bats collected in Gabon and Republic of Congo that turned up Marburg virus infection in a common fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus.

Marburg virus, like its cousin Ebola, causes incredibly deadly outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in both human and ape populations. Given their near-absolute lethality, it's a given that these killers don't just reside in the human and ape populations and then "go nuts" every so often. This research by Towner et al finally points the way toward understanding the natural reservoir for hemorrhagic fevers in Africa. In so doing, it may also point the way toward mitigating future epidemics or even wholly preventing them in the first place.

And, as befits the inherently dual-use nature of all pathogen research, it also tells you where to go if you want to collect some Marburg virus and can't convince USAMRIID to give you any.

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 23, 2007 12:01 PM.

The previous post in this blog was GAO: Be more realistic when you plan.

The next post in this blog is American science slipping? Maybe, maybe not.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.