Ebola virus may have originated in Africa from traditional “Bush Meat”

The deadly Ebola virus, which emerged mysteriously from African forests, probably attacks people who butchered and ate infected animals, a new study has suggested.

The deadly Ebola virus, which emerged mysteriously from African forests, probably attacks people who butchered and ate infected animals, a new study has suggested.Many peoples from Africa depend on apes and monkeys, known to them as bush meat, for food. Some African governments are trying to discourage the practice because many apes are endangered. The virus, which most recently killed 29 people in the Congo Republic, seems to break out when people slaughter chimpanzees, gorillas and small antelopes called duikers, the scientists research has suggested “Humans and duikers scavenging for meat probably became infected by contact with dead apes,” they wrote in their report, published in the new issue of the journal Science. “Almost all human Ebola outbreaks in Gabon and the Republic of Congo have been linked to the handling of dead animals by villagers or hunters, and increased animal mortality always preceded the first human cases,” added the international team of researchers, led by Eric Leroy of the Development Research Institute in Gabon. They said health workers may be able to get a warning of Ebola outbreaks when large numbers of dead animals start appearing in forests. Ebola first appeared in 1976 and causes a particularly frightening and deadly form of hemorrhagic fever. Patients die of shock but may bleed internally and externally. Depending on the strain of virus, it has a mortality rate of 50 to 90 per cent of patients.(Source: Reuters Health, ABC Health News, Jan 2004)