Google Earth Community: Cave warning on Uganda bat virus

The World Health Organization has warned people not to go into Ugandan caves with bats, after a Dutch tourist contracted the deadly Marburg virus.The woman, aged 40, died on July 11, 2008 after being taken to hospital following her return to the Netherlands, health authorities there said.They said she probably contracted the disease while visiting a Ugandan cave inhabited by fruit bats.

The Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg haemorrhagic fever (also known as green monkey disease). Both the disease and virus are related to Ebola and originate in Uganda and Eastern Congo. The zoonosis is of unknown origin, but Egyptian fruit bats are suspected. In the spring of 2005, the virus attracted widespread press attention for an outbreak in Angola.

In September 2007, New Scientist magazine reported that the virus has been found in cave-dwelling African fruit bats in Gabon, the first time the virus has been found outside humans and primates. A team in Uganda is also testing bats in a mine after two miners contracted Marburg in August 2007. Ebola genes (a close relative to Marburg) were found in three species of fruit bats in 2005. The same techniques used to identify those genes were also used to identify Marburg genes found in Egyptian fruit bats, Rousettus aegyptiacus. Marburg antibodies have now been found in healthy bats, suggesting that the bats had been previously infected. Although no-one has yet found complete live viruses from a bat, the team suggest that 'think we can be sure that these fruit bats are the reservoir of Marburg virus'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7502243.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_07_10/en/index.html
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/marburg/en/</tr></td></table>