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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2007;298:1268.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

An international team of researchers has found evidence suggesting that a common African fruit bat species may be a natural reservoir for Marburg virus (Towner JS et al. PLoS ONE. 2007;2[8]:e764. Available at http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000764).

Although Marburg virus was discovered in 1967, the natural reservoir for this deadly virus has been a mystery. However, the possibility that bats might harbor the infection was raised by such findings as the discovery of a related filovirus (Ebola virus) in fruit bats in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo and epidemiological evidence linking cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever during a large outbreak in 2000 to a gold mine inhabited by large numbers of bats.

Bats are currently suspected of being the source of 2 cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in July, diagnosed in 2 miners working in a lead and gold mine in Uganda.

The researchers tested members . . . [Full Text of this Article]