So far scientist have found this new never-before-seen virus in bats, but it is still uncertain as to it being harmful to humans. This news is recent (2/28/12) and even though their is not any information on this flu and how it effects us. But just like any other flu, go and protect your body and get a flu shot right away. It never hurts to be extra save, than be sick and sorry.
It is almost common now a days to find animal caring a flu virus. There have been reports of a flu in not only birds and pigs (the more common animals we cook and eat). But are sometimes seen in dogs, seals, whales and horses as well as other animals. A flu virus is know for spreading around everywhere so it would not surprise me to see that an animal like a bat, which most people would not think about as much. Would end up caring some virus in them. Scientists hypothesis that some bats might have caught the flu centuries ago and then the virus mutated within the bat. As the bat population grew, so did the virus.
There are some guesses as to how this new virus could end up effecting us. Bats are known to eat only fruit and insects not people. So we would not have to sorry about going into a cave and getting bite by a bat and getting the virus. But if the bat takes a bite of a fruit, and a human has contact (takes the fruit or eat the fruit without noticing the bite marks) with the fruit. Then there is the possibility of the bat flu spreading to humans.
In Guatemala, the CDC has an international outpost where they do reasearch and collect information. It is there that they have collected 300 bats from 2009 to 2010. The main focus was on rabies, but also looked into other germs and that is how they came across this new virus found in a little yellow-shoulder bats (found by Donis, a veterinarian by training). The next step in learning about this new virus is the scientist are going to draw the blood from the bat and examine it more. And I think they are going to inject it into other animals and document the results. And from their research, then they will see if it will harm us next.
My only question about this article is are there any more bats that they have collected that are caring this new virus. There are many bats in the world and my question is are all bats affected by this virus, has it spread so much that it is seen in other species of bats. Again this story is new, so it is too early to say anything more. But I do hope that this news will be address more on the nightly news and answer these questions.
http://health.newsplurk.com/2012/02/bird-flu-pig-flu-now-bat-flu-human-risk.html
http://www.ajc.com/news/scientists-discover-flu-in-1365748.html
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/news/bat-flu-human-risk-unclear-1.1244563
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