Study finds W Africa at highest risk of bat-to-human virus spread

LONDON: Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia are most at risk from bat viruses jumping to humans and causing new diseases that could lead to deadly outbreaks, scientists warned on Tuesday.

Approximately 60 to 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases are so-called "zoonotic events" -- where animal diseases jump into people -- and bats in particular are known to carry many zoonotic viruses.

The tiny animals are the suspected origin of rabies, Ebola, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and possibly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and could cause other as yet unknown epidemics in future.

Scientists at University College London (UCL), the Zoological Society of London and Edinburgh University aimed to map out the highest-risk areas, using a variety of factors including large numbers of bat viruses found locally, increasing population pressure, and hunting bats for bushmeat.

Kate Jones, UCL’s chair of ecology and biodiversity, said her team first created risk maps for each variable and found, for example, that in mapping for potential human-bat contact, sub-Saharan Africa was a hotspot, while for diversity of bat viruses, South America was at most risk.

"By combining the separate maps, we’ve created the first global picture of the overall risks of bat viruses infecting humans in different regions," she said.

The work was published in journal The American Naturalist.

The research, using data published between 1900 and 2013, found that overall West Africa -- the epicentre of the recent Ebola outbreak -- is at highest risk for zoonotic bat viruses.

The wider sub-Saharan Africa region, as well as South East Asia, were also found to be hotspots.