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| Volunteers prepare to remove the bodies of people who were suspected of contracting Ebola and died in the community in the village of Pendebu, north of Kenema July 18 , 2014. |
Kenya: A national search for Ebola-like viruses has identified three main hotspots that could be a source of other deadly animal to human diseases.
A team of researchers from the US and the Zoology Department at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) found that some 217 bats of 20 different species in 17 locations across the country have organisms dangerous to human beings.
The American team included researchers from Emory University where two health workers infected with Ebola in Liberia are being treated. Others were from the US and Nairobi offices of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In the study, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 42 of the bats were found to carry viruses that cause measles, mumps, rabies and acute respiratory infections.
BLADDER INFECTION
Further analysis showed four bats were carrying an organism that causes diarrheal disease, conjunctivitis (inflammation of the eyes) and bladder infection in humans.
Four of the mammals were found to be infected with more than one type of disease causing agent.
The type of rabies and bladder infecting viruses found in the local bats has not been identified elsewhere in the world, according to the team.
One of the researchers Dr Bernard Risky Agwanda, of NMK, said their aim is not to cause panic but warn against unguarded interaction with wild animals, which could lead to a serious public health disaster.
For more than four decades, bats have been under intense scrutiny because they are thought to be reservoirs for various diseases affecting animals and human beings including Ebola.
NMK estimates that there are about 108 species of bats in Kenya and represent a quarter of Kenya’s 400 mammalian species. Bats are mostly found in national parks where there is little human disturbance, in caves, under bridges and abandoned buildings. But they also live openly across the country roosting on trees and buildings. “New viruses are documented in bats every year, which has drawn increasing attention to these mammalian reservoirs, uniquely associated with a variety of known and potential animal to human diseases including hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola,” wrote the study team.
The bats have been specifically targeted by the CDCs Division of Viral Diseases because of their association with filoviruses responsible for Ebola and the Marburg fevers. Though the search continues, scientists report Ebola has remained elusive though they have identified Marburg virus in Rousettus bats in Uganda.
For decades, Kitum caves in Mount Elgon have been a subject of intense study by the US military researchers and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) following the death of two foreigners from Marburg hemorrhagic virus which is a close relative of Ebola.
The two, a 56-year-old Frenchman, according to the World Health Organisation and the other, a 15-year-old Danish male, died in Nairobi Hospital of hemorrhagic fever with the characteristics of Ebola. The only common thing about the two men, was that both had visited Kitum caves in Mount Elgon National Park. The Frenchman infected his doctor who was treated by one of Kenya’s top physicians, Dr David Silverstein, at Nairobi Hospital in January 1980. The physician survived.
“Our interest is to hunt down Ebola and other viruses that pose a threat to human health and understand how they survive but so far we have not caught the big one,” says Kemri Director Solomon Mpoke. He tells Kenyans to be careful on how they interact with wild animals because of the increasing danger of animal to human diseases.
“This danger is heightened by increasing human density, deforestation and more proximity to wildlife habitats,” says Dr Agwanda.
The highest number of the disease causing viruses was found in Mt Suswa caves in the Rift Valley followed by Kitum caves and some few areas in Kisumu. The bats in Kitum were mainly the species called fruit bats suspected to be reservoirs for Ebola virus.
A week ago, the Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri in an interview with Citizen TV advised Kenyans to take hygienic precautions when visiting places inhabited by bats.
“While the immediate threat of Ebola in the country is from West African air travellers we are not blind to the threat posed by wildlife especially the fruit bats,” he said.
Dr Muraguri told Kenyans who come into contact with bats to make sure they wash their hands properly with soap and avoid close contact with monkeys and other primates because they are known to frequent such caves.
WASH HANDS PROPERLY
Bats that tested positive for these viruses were from the caves of Mt Suswa which is reported to have an extensive history of guano mining.
Guano are bat droppings and other birds usually found in caves and are said to be a rich source of agricultural fertiliser. Around 2009, the government was reported to have been looking for an investor to start guano mining in the Elgon caves.
However, individual farmers have been harvesting guano from the mountain which is thought to have inspired H. Rider Haggard’s to write the famous novel by the title, King Solomon’s Mines.
Other areas where infected bats were identified, but in small numbers included Watamu caves at the Coast, Makigeny cave on Mt Elgon, Chyulu National Park and Shimoni caves near Wasini Islands at the Coast, Panga Yambo caves and Kakamega forest . Urban areas where bats were found habouring human disease causing viruses were around Kisumu and Vihiga.
The team led by Prof Christina Conrardy of CDC Atlanta, US, warned against activities such as guano mining, cave trips, hunting and consumption of bats as they could increase the chance of human animal infections.