Viral Reservoirs

By Rameez Mahesar | September 2020

Alook into the history of virus-borne diseases, reveals that bats have largely contributed to spreading virus-borne diseases around the world. It is said that the current coronavirus is not the only virus that has been spread by bats. In the not too distant past, other virus-borne diseases were also caused by bats. Bats are said to infect animals first which then begin thinning out the viruses that produce diseases. The coronavirus, which is said to have originated in Wuhan – a large city in China, infected the animals first.

In 1967, the Marburg virus hit Germany and was said to have been caused by bats. In 2014 the Ebola virus in West Africa was also found to have bat roots in trees, buildings and caves. The Nipah virus which caused havoc in India in 2018 and claimed the lives of many people, came from the fruit bat.

A report appearing in ‘The Spectator’ also confirms that bats are one of the major causes behind the spread of these terminal viruses. The bodies of both humans and bats are “sufficiently related” to the flourishing of viruses.

The human race has built immunity against such diseases as tuberculosis, measles, smallpox, and anthrax which are caused by domesticated animals like dogs, cows and pigs. Unlike other mammals like tigers, bats prefer to live in large colonies and these become the source of viruses.

A study entitled ‘Accelerated viral dynamics in bat cell lines, with implications for zoonotic emergence’, confirms that these viruses are dispersed briskly from cell to cell so as to counter the immune system of bats.

This is more perilous for mammals which have not established a strong immune system by the time they are infected.

Kevin Olival, a disease ecologist with Eco Health Alliance in New York City, declared, “We can learn a lot from bats and about their immune system and take some of that information to think over the development of our own therapeutics and about our own health”.

The question in the long run is, how detrimental is the virus? Some quarters say the human death rate is not the only decisive factor in this regard.

The 1918 flu pandemic killed hundreds of thousands people in the U.S.; the Ebola virus and other such viruses enabled health officials to get ready for major outbreaks from different viruses but all these officials have had a tough time in forecasting how each outbreak will end. Such diseases are largely subject to other situations — how spreadable and terminal it is, how germ-free people are and how soon a vaccine or cure is made available.

In many parts of the world, COVID-19 cases are increasing every day and it is natural to draw a comparison between this new disease and other outbreaks in recent history. Dr. Mark Schleiss – a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota – has said that the coronavirus flu was novel occurrence for people mostly in the age bracket of 40 and 50. The 1918 flu had infected about a third of the world’s population and it was poles apart from the usual flu. In 2009 and 2014, other frightening viruses like H1N1 influenza and Ebola emerged but were successfully controlled.

The world today continues to struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. For all nations, saving the economy and tackling the health crisis cannot be done at the same time. Research from around the globe shows the grim reality that an economic downturn leads to unemployment and reduces the welfare of the people. Whatever happens, the poor will always be the hardest hit. However, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and there must be something positive at the end of the pandemic. This must be viewed as the right time to improve things, from improving the food system to designing healthier homes.

Wuhan

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