Determining the Reservoir Species of Zaire Ebola Virus: A Proposed Epidemiological Survey

• Main Author: Hohnstein, Nicole M
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2016
• Subjects: Ebola; bats; epidemiology; reservoir; Africa; outbreak; Biology; Epidemiology; International Public Health; Other Immunology and Infectious Disease; Other Public Health; Viruses
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1394; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2404&context=cmc_theses

Ebola virus (EBOV) is a re-emerging zoonotic virus (it is transmitted between animals and humans) that causes acute hemorrhagic fever and a high fatality rate in humans. First reported in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), the virus is transmitted between humans through direct contact with body fluids of an infected person, causing fever, weakness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cramping, nausea and vomiting in those affected. There is neither a licensed vaccine nor an approved treatment for Ebola virus in human patients. The reservoir species for Ebola virus is similarly unknown, as many studies have attempted yet failed to isolate living virus from potential candidates. The widely accepted and circulated hypothesis based on preliminary findings of outbreaks past is that bat species, specifically the fruit bat species Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris torquata are potential reservoirs. Recent reports, especially concerning findings from the 2014 Ebola outbreak, have determined that insectivorous bats could similarly be reservoir species. Successful isolation of a live virus from a bat species found through a widened sampling of a variety of bat species would confirm the hypothesis that bats, either fruit or insectivorous, are the reservoir species for Ebola virus.