Ebola experts say 16 other bat viruses could infect man
By Emma Batha LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Scientists looking for Ebola in bats have identified 16 other viruses in the animal which could jump to humans and potentially cause a disease outbreak on a similar scale to the West African crisis, a health security expert said on Friday. Professor Nigel Lightfoot said the additional viruses had been identified by scientists from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa. “They tell me they have got 16 other (viruses)…which are just waiting to spread to humans and cause the next (epidemic),” he told a conference in London on tackling serious infectious diseases. Lightfoot said the World Bank would shortly announce hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in infrastructure in the three countries worst affected by Ebola – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
