Ebola, KFD and Bats

Abstract

The headline in the Times of India, dated July 23, 2019, “India Needs to Prepare for Ebola, Other Viral Diseases†was frightening. It quotes an article in Indian Journal of Medical Research, which states “Bats are thought to be the natural reservoirs of this virus…..India is home to a great diversity of bat species….†But Ebola has not yet come to India, though there is every possibility. But what about Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), which is already in India and which has links with an insectivorous bat? Recognized in 1957, the virus was isolated in 1969 over fifty years ago from four insectivorous bats, Rhinolophus rouxii, and from Ornithodoros ticks collected from the roosting habitat of these bats, (Ind. J. Med. Res, 1969, 905-8). KFD came as a big enough epidemic in 1957, but later petered out and then sporadically appeared throughout the Western Ghat region, from Kerala to Gujarat and an epidemic resurfacing in the oldest theater in January 2019! There were many publications in India about investigations done in these areas, but none of them mentioned anything about bats. The scare of Ebola invading India has now turned the attention of the authorities, after five decades, to bats.