Ebola

Originally posted by Metal Brain
Perhaps fruit bats have more ebola virus' that man has not been infected with yet. What is your source of information?

Perhaps fruit bats have more ebola virus' that man has not been infected with yet

That would be perfectly plausible. I have just tried googling to find out how many known strains of ebola fruit bats catch but got nowhere but there could always perfectly plausibly be a few unknown strains infecting the bats.

What is your source of information?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease

and

http://www.livescience.com/47946-where-did-ebola-come-from.html

+ the total absence of evidence that ebola has been evolving for a long time (thousands/millions of years ) in humans as opposed to evolving in bats for a very long time;
-it would be strange if it had been evolving for a very long time in humans and yet we haven't found a single strain of it that has especially adapted to human hosts more than animal hosts! That would be difficult to explain!

Originally posted by twhitehead
https://www.facebook.com/captpaulwatson/photos/a.443115070931.234296.155430570931/10152715015025932/?type=1

Wow, I knew ebola was a miner cause of death even in Africa but not that miner! It is completely dwarfed even by number of deaths caused road accidents.
However, hypothetically, if the disease was stupidly ignored and no quarantine measures were taken, that would soon change. But quarantine measures are taken and I guess abola is unlikely to ever cause more deaths than road accidents even in the worst hit areas of Africa.

Originally posted by humy

Perhaps fruit bats have more ebola virus' that man has not been infected with yet

That would be perfectly plausible. I have just tried googling to find out how many known strains of ebola fruit bats catch but got nowhere but there could always perfectly plausibly be a few unknown strains infecting the bats.
[quote] What is your s ...[text shortened]... as especially adapted to human hosts more than animal hosts! That would be difficult to explain!

The livescience article admits nobody is sure it is the fruit bats, but it is clearly a popular theory.

The fruit bats should be tested for virus' to see how many they have and try to confirm the theory. Not doing so would be foolish in my opinion. If some guy butchers a fruit bat and gets an entirely new strain of ebola I think it would be good to know about that other strain before that guy gets infected.

Originally posted by Metal Brain
The livescience article admits nobody is sure it is the fruit bats, but it is clearly a popular theory.

The fruit bats should be tested for virus' to see how many they have and try to confirm the theory. Not doing so would be foolish in my opinion. If some guy butchers a fruit bat and gets an entirely new strain of ebola I think it would be good to know about that other strain before that guy gets infected.

The livescience article admits nobody is sure it is the fruit bats, but it is clearly a popular theory.

I am no expert on this but, judging from what I have read so far, although it by far isn't absolutely certain, it seems to be the best theory based on the current evidence. See:

https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/bats.html
“...Evidence Supporting Bats as the Vector …
…
...”

although that link also gives “..Evidence Against Bats as the Vector ...”, this evidence doesn't in any way imply that abola could be native to humans.
And, if it isn't coming from the bats, then it must be coming from some other non-human animal onto humans.
Either way, whether it comes from the bats or some other non-human animal, it isn't native to humans and thus hasn't evolved in humans but rather evolved in other animals over a long time period and then occasionally accidentally infects humans.

The fruit bats should be tested for virus'

they already have been. But, unfortunately, the results tend to be extremely difficult to interpret esp conclusively. The tests generally, at best, would give probabilities rather than hard facts on whether the first humans to become infected got it from the bats. This is because, if the bats tested negative for abola, that just could be because the particular individual bats tested didn't have it but some other untested bat has it or at least did have it. Obviously, it generally wouldn't be practical to test the entire bat population! So it is perfectly possible for the tests to miss infected bats. And, even when the bats have tested positive for the virus, that doesn't necessarily mean the first people to become infected got it from that bat population; why couldn't they got it from some other type of animal? -the bats having it could quite credibly be coincidence and not a particularly big coincidence at that!
So I hope you see the problem here with how to interpret such test results scientifically!

I suppose the only way we can be pretty sure it came from a bat is if the first person to become infected was known to have come in contact with a bat that was then tested for abola and tested positive and with exactly the same strain! -then there could be little doubt unless you are to believe it was a massive coincidence because he actually got it from another animal! (I wouldn't buy that )

Originally posted by humy

The livescience article admits nobody is sure it is the fruit bats, but it is clearly a popular theory.

I am no expert on this but, judging from what I have read so far, although it by far isn't absolutely certain, it seems to be the best theory based on the current evidence. See:

https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/bats.html
“... ...[text shortened]... you are to believe it was a massive coincidence because he actually got it from another animal!

It depends what criteria there are for considering a potential host species as being proven to be the reservoir of a zoonotic disease. The current outbreak in DR Congo was traced back to a woman who had handled bushmeat, I had read somewhere that it was a fruit bat, but the wikipedia article doesn't say. The DR Congo outbreak is a different strain to the West African outbreak, for which the Index case seems to be a two year old boy called Emile who died, his family are believed to have hunted fruit bats.

Originally posted by humy

The livescience article admits nobody is sure it is the fruit bats, but it is clearly a popular theory.

I am no expert on this but, judging from what I have read so far, although it by far isn't absolutely certain, it seems to be the best theory based on the current evidence. See:

https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/bats.html
“... ...[text shortened]... was a massive coincidence because he actually got it from another animal! (I wouldn't buy that )

I never implied ebola was native to humans. Earlier in this thread I stated that ebola was not special in that it has crossed species. I didn't rule out bats as the origin either. I am finding out that determining the origin is not easy. The following article about swine flu brings up more questions than answers.

http://www.wired.com/2009/04/swinefluupdate/

Here is the first paragraph:

"The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that’s fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wired.com Tuesday. Earlier reports called it a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains."
I have never heard of an hybrid virus as described in the link. I would like to know how that happens though. I'll have to look into it later.

Later in the article is this statement:

"In medical terms, the genetic origins of the virus may not matter. Whether it come solely from pigs rather than a mix of pigs, birds and humans doesn’t change its immunological novelty.

However, understanding the origins could eventually help scientists determine how the virus evolved and where it originally emerged."

I think understanding the genetic origins of the virus is important. It may not change its immunological novelty, but knowing how it evolved may reveal a much better understanding of it, particularly a resulting hybrid if that is what it really is.

Here is an interesting article about reassortment (hybrids).

http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-create-hybrid-flu-that-can-go-airborne-1.12925

Happy Halloween! Mwaaahahaha!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/1001027-rabies-influenza-zombie-virus-science/

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/23/ebola-outbreak-blamed-on-fruit-bats-africa

While not 100% sure the fruit bats appear to be the primary suspects .....I did not realize that the bats are not biting monkeys but the fruit which makes more sense of course people handling infected bats to eat would be a possible transmission point

Manny

I will certainly think twice before agreeing to help my sister (a biologist) catch and dissect fruit bats as I have in the past.

Originally posted by twhitehead
I will certainly think twice before agreeing to help my sister (a biologist) catch and dissect fruit bats as I have in the past.

I think Zimbabwe is outside the "Ebola belt". Besides, she'll be aware of the risks and not put you at risk even if she's a bit blase about it for herself.

On a tangent what key strokes do I need to do to get accents - normally when I achieve this it's because I've copy and pasted the accent.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/141003_ebola

Originally posted by DeepThought
I think Zimbabwe is outside the "Ebola belt". Besides, she'll be aware of the risks and not put you at risk even if she's a bit blase about it for herself.

On a tangent what key strokes do I need to do to get accents - normally when I achieve this it's because I've copy and pasted the accent.

If you use US international keyboard settings it is quite straightforward, just precede the letter by an apostrophe.

Originally posted by DeepThought
I think Zimbabwe is outside the "Ebola belt". Besides, she'll be aware of the risks and not put you at risk even if she's a bit blase about it for herself.

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/animals/fruit-bats-africas-greatest-mammal-migration
I come from Zambia and Zambian fruit bats are migratory and travel as far as the Congo (that we know of).
So little is known about both bats and Ebola in bats that it is quite unreasonable to assume that they are not carriers.

On a tangent what key strokes do I need to do to get accents - normally when I achieve this it's because I've copy and pasted the accent.
I hardly ever use accents myself. Copy/Paste is the easiest. Otherwise, in a Microsoft Office product you can use:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-za/word-help/keyboard-shortcuts-for-international-characters-HP005186562.aspx
Anywhere else:
http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codealt.html

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
If you use US international keyboard settings it is quite straightforward, just precede the letter by an apostrophe.

It's probably a British keyboard layout. 'a didn't work, neither did `a. Thanks anyway.

Originally posted by twhitehead
http://www.discoverwildlife.com/animals/fruit-bats-africas-greatest-mammal-migration
I come from Zambia and Zambian fruit bats are migratory and travel as far as the Congo (that we know of).
So little is known about both bats and Ebola in bats that it is quite unreasonable to assume that they are not carriers.

[b]On a tangent what key strokes do I n ...[text shortened]... characters-HP005186562.aspx
Anywhere else:
http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codealt.html

I misremembered where you were from. If they migrate as far as DR Congo then your sister needs to be very careful when handling them. Possibly the Ebola belt has more to do with whether they are regarded as edible or not.

I use Linux out of a general preference for UNIX systems. Windows is this clunky pain that goes wrong over time.