Article

2013-08-23 Arabia

Egyptian Bats The Source Of Saudi Killer MERS Virus

[LVGuardianExpress] On Wednesday, health officials confirmed that bats in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
were the source of the coronavirus in the Middle East, which can cause MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. MERS has thus far sickened 96 people in the Middle East. 47 of those ultimately died.

The recent MERS outbreak has been going on for 15 months. Most of the victims have fallen ill in Saudi Arabia. Some grew sick after having traveled to the Middle East.

The bat is a Taphozous perforatus, or Egyptian tomb bat. Typically, the creature roosts in abandoned buildings. The virus was found in a fecal sample inside one of these buildings.

Dr. Jonathan H. Epstein, a veterinarian with the EcoHealth Alliance who helped trap the bats, has suggested that victims, like shepherds who might seek shelter in the buildings, picked it up by breathing in dried bat guano. If so, it would be very similar to the way that Americans have been infected with hantavirus while sweeping up dried mouse droppings.

Another possibility is that some other animal came into contact with the feces from an infected bat, and that animal then spread the coronavirus. It is also possible that an animal picked it up that way and then infected a human.