WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014 HEALTH & SCIENCE Hollow tree was ’s Ground Zero

PARIS: Insect-eating bats that inhabited a Cousin species hollow tree in a remote village in Guinea Highly contagious, the virus is then may have been the source of the world’s passed among humans through contact biggest Ebola epidemic, scientists said yes- with body fluids. A known reservoir is the terday. More than 20,000 cases of Ebola, fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi), a wide- with at least 7,800 deaths, have been spread tropical African species that in some recorded by the World Health Organization countries is killed for food, offering a infec- (WHO) since a two-year-old boy died in the tion pathway to hunters and butchers of village of Meliandou in December 2013. the mammal. Reporting in the journal EMBO Molecular But the role of fruit bats in the current Medicine, scientists led by Fabian outbreak has never been confirmed, the Leendertz at Berlin’s Robert Koch Institute scientists said. In contrast, free-tailed bats, delved into the circumstances surrounding a cousin species, have been found in lab this first fatality. tests to be able to carry the virus but not The finger of suspicion points at insec- fall sick with it. That, too, would make them tivorous free-tailed bats-Mops condylurus a “reservoir,” but no evidence of this has in Latin-that lived in a hollow tree 50 ever been found in the wild. The German meters (yards) from the boy’s home, they team said evidence that this species helped said. “The close proximity of a large colony unleash the present epidemic was strong of free-tailed bats... provided opportunity but not 100 percent. for infection. Children regularly caught and Local children not only played with the LONDON: Medical staff in protective clothing transport a healthcare worker diagnosed with the Ebola virus disease in a quarantine tent prior to played with bats in this tree,” the team said bats at the tree, they also hunted bats that her being transferred to the Royal Free Hospital in north London at airport, Scotland, yesterday.—AP photos after an exhaustive four-week probe car- roosted at village homes and grilled them ried out in April. for food, they found. In addition, they saw The Ebola virus holes up in a natural no evidence of any local die-off among Ebola nurse treated in London haven, also called a reservoir, among wild larger mammals, which would have been a animals which are not affected by it. The secondary route of infection for humans. virus can infect humans who come into On the other hand, no trace of Ebola virus as rate rises contact with this source directly or indirect- was found in any of the bats the scientists ly through contact with animals that have captured and whose blood was ana- fallen sick from it. lyzed.—AFP LONDON: A British nurse who contracted Ebola in west Africa was being treated in a specialist London hospital yesterday as infection rates grew again in eastern parts of Sierra Leone where the outbreak had subsided. The volun- teer, who returned Sunday from a treatment facility in Kerry Town in Sierra Leone run by the Save the Children charity, was transferred overnight from a Glasgow hospital in a Royal Air Force plane. British media named her as , a nurse who was part of a 30-strong team of medical volunteers sent to Sierra Leone last month.In an emotional diary written for The Scotsman newspaper, Cafferkey talked about her work at the facility, including meeting an orphan boy. “The sad thing is that this is a regular occur- rence and we see and hear of whole families being wiped out by this awful disease,” Cafferkey wrote. It is the first time someone has tested positive for Ebola in Britain and she is the second to be treated for the virus in the country after fellow nurse William Pooley, who made a full recovery earlier this year and has since returned to Sierra Leone. The world’s deadliest-ever out- break, which has killed 7,842 people out of LONDON: A picture shows a general view of The Royal Free hospital in north London yesterday, CHINA: A farmer feed ducks at a farm in Suichuan, east China’s Jiangxi province yes- 20,081 cases, has been centered on Sierra Leone, where the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the UK will be treated after being airlifted terday.—AFP Liberia and Guinea in west Africa. In October, a Spanish nurse who treated two from Glasgow. Ebola-infected Spanish missionaries became the Japan orders slaughter of 37,000 first person to be diagnosed with the disease in Europe and the first to contract it outside of chickens in bird flu outbreak Africa. Around 100 people have been tested for TOKYO: Japan yesterday ordered the that led to the cull of 4,000 chickens-the Ebola in hospitals across England alone so far slaughter of some 37,000 chickens as offi- first outbreak of bird flu at a Japanese farm this year, with all of them testing negative so far. cials announced the third bird flu outbreak since April. A second person returning from the affected in less than a month and pledged “all nec- “We will continue to take all necessary region was being tested for the virus in Cornwall essary measures” to contain the spread. measures if any further outbreaks are con- in southwest England and a third, also a health- Tests confirmed the H5 strain of the virus at firmed,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide care worker, was to be tested in Aberdeen, a farm in Yamaguchi prefecture on the Suga, the government’s top spokesman, Scotland. Officials said that as far as they knew southwestern tip of Japan’s main Honshu said at a ministerial meeting concerning neither of the two had contact with the con- island after its owner reported late Monday the government’s outbreak response. firmed case and the test results were expected that several chickens had died suddenly, Japan’s agriculture ministry regularly warns yesterday. The new case is being treated at the the farm ministry said. farmers about the risk of infection, citing Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a high- Officials began the slaughter yesterday the continued spread of the disease in Asia, level isolation unit ready to handle Ebola cases and asked farms within a 10 kilometer (six including in South Korea. Some strains of and equipped with its own ventilation system to mile) radius not to transport their poultry avian influenza are fatal for chickens, and avoid contagion. outside of the area. pose a health threat to humans, who can The patient had travelled to Glasgow from The latest confirmed case comes a day fall sick after handling infected poultry. The Sierra Leone on Sunday, via Casablanca in after the government ordered the slaugh- H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than Morocco. Health authorities said they had con- ter of about 42,000 chickens at a poultry 400 people, mainly in southeast Asia, since tacted 63 of the 70 people who were on the farm in Miyazaki prefecture in southern first appearing in 2003. Another strain of plane with her on the last leg of her journey Kyushu. Earlier this month, bird flu reports bird flu, H7N9, has claimed more than 170 from London Heathrow Airport to Glasgow. The came from another Miyazaki poultry farm lives since emerging in 2013.—AFP National Health Service worker was admitted to hospital on Monday after feeling feverish. “She LONDON: A healthcare worker who was diagnosed with Ebola after returning from Sierra did not have the symptoms that make us wor- Leone is walked from an ambulance and put into a quarantine tent trolley before being ried about transmission before she was in the wheeled into a Hercules Transport plane at Glasgow International Airport yesterday, bound for isolation facility in Glasgow,” said Professor Paul The Royal Free hospital. Injured hippo dies in Taiwan, Cosford from the Public Health England agency. Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily with Cafferkey from Sierra Leone, criticized Kono had recorded 21 new Ebola cases on owner faces jail term fluids and officials emphasised that the risk of what he called the “shambolic” testing process Friday and Saturday. the virus spreading was “negligible”. at Heathrow. “They ran out of testing kits and Meanwhile scientists said insect-eating bats TAIPEI: A hippopotamus owned by a pri- formed in Taipei Zoo in the north linked the didn’t seem to know what they were doing,” he that inhabited a hollow tree in a remote village vate ranch died in Taiwan yesterday after tragedy to the first fall, which crushed the New cases in Sierra Leone told The Daily Telegraph newspaper. in Guinea may have been the source of the epi- suffering two accidents-once when it beast’s diaphragm. That accident hap- Sierra Leone’s deputy government In Sierra Leone, a five-day Christmas lock- demic. The first death was that of a two-year- jumped from a moving truck and again pened last Friday when the panicked hippo spokesman Abdulai Bayratay defended screen- down in the north aimed at preventing new old boy died in the village of Meliandou in when its container was dropped. The ani- jumped from the truck in which it was ing measures in place. “The screening process Ebola infections ended on Monday. However, December 2013. Reporting in the journal mal, named “A Ho” after the Chinese word being transported, breaking a leg. she went through at the Lungi International Ebola infections have increased in the dia- EMBO Molecular Medicine, scientists led by for hippo Ho Ma, was found dead in its Television footage showed the enormous Airport was of quality standard and as far as mond-rich Kono district in the country’s east, Fabian Leendertz at Berlin’s Robert Koch pond at a farm in the central city of animal lying on the road-where it remained was detected, she left the country without any where the infection rates had been decreasing. Institute said the contamination may have Taichung. Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji for several hours-with white fluid oozing symptoms of Ebola,” he told AFP. But British Quoting updates from the National Ebola come from a tree 50 metres (yards) from the has slammed the ranch owner for what he from its eyes. medic Martin Deahl, who said he had travelled Response Centre, the national broadcaster said boy’s home.—AFP described as carelessness in transporting Then, when the hippo was being taken the animal. back to the farm for treatment of its The government is considering prose- injuries, the cable on a hoist broke and its cuting the owner after a post-mortem to container crashed to the ground from a determine the exact cause of death. He height of two meters (6.5 feet). “The animal Food and medication insecurity could face a jail term of up to a year under was not properly protected during the an animal protection law. “The city govern- transportation process, leading to its ment has asked prosecutors to look into injuries. What’s worse, it had not received tied to poor diabetes control the case,” Chen Ming-hui, a local official, due medical treatment the last two days,” told AFP, adding that the ranch has been said Chu Tseng-hung, the head of the non- NEW YORK: People without reliable sources of People with low incomes may not benefit as researchers found. For example, about 64 per- ordered to make a plan to improve the profit Environment and Animal Society of food and medicine are more likely to have poor much from that increased access, they add, cent of those who reported an unstable food management of the rest of the animals Taiwan. A Ho was a star attraction at its control over their diabetes, compared to those because getting more healthcare services does supply had uncontrolled diabetes, compared to there. ranch and even appeared in a popular tele- without such concerns, according to a new not mean also having access to food, medica- about 42 percent of those with food security. The initial result of the autopsy per- vision soap opera several years ago.—AFP study. Researchers found the likelihood of a per- tions and other items needed to control dia- son having poorly controlled diabetes increased betes. For the study, the researchers used data Healthcare system by about 39 percent for each of the so-called collected from June 2012 through October 2013 While housing and energy insecurities were economic insecurities they reported. “What we from 411 people with diabetes at clinics and not tied to worse diabetes control, the study found is that food and medication are a big deal health centers in Massachusetts. found that people with an overall greater num- and probably account for the bulk of it, but it ber of insecurities had greater odds of being less doesn’t look like there is any one thing,” said Dr Uncontrolled diabetes in control of their diabetes. “I think it lets us Seth Berkowitz, the study’s lead author from Massachusetts expanded healthcare access know that even if we - nationwide - achieve the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. years before the rest of the country. “I think what rate of insurance coverage in Massachusetts, Approximately 29 million Americans - about 9 we’re looking at in Massachusetts is where the these problems will still likely exist,” Berkowitz percent of the US population - have diabetes, rest of the country will be in a few years,” said. He added that the problem is likely beyond according to the Centers for Disease Control and Berkowitz said. Most of the participants had the healthcare system to solve, because the new Prevention. Type 2 is the most common form of insurance, about 46 percent of the participants research showed people with these insecurities diabetes and is often linked to obesity. In type 2 had uncontrolled diabetes and about 40 percent were visiting their doctors. diabetes, the body’s cells may be resistant to the reported some sort of inability to get food, med- “You have people who are seeking care and hormone insulin, or the body may not make icine or other necessities. seeing what they have, but . . . you’re just not get- enough of the hormone. Insulin gives blood sug- Specifically, about 28 percent reported not ting people what they need to stay healthy,” ar access to the body’s cells to be used as fuel. taking their medicines because they couldn’t Berkowitz said. “This is sort of a policy or system- There’s been speculation that the 2010 afford the drugs. About 14 percent said they level issue,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - bet- couldn’t pay their utility bills, about 20 percent in the course of an individual visit that patients or ter known as Obamacare - would increase access said they didn’t have reliable access to food and physicians are going to be able to do.” Berkowitz to healthcare for people with diabetes, about 11 percent said their housing situation added, though, that people should let their doc- TAIWAN: In this photo taken on December 26, 2014, an injured hippo lies on the Berkowitz and his colleagues write in JAMA wasn’t stable. Food and medication insecurities tors and healthcare providers know if they are ground after it jumped from a truck in Miaoli county.—AFP Internal Medicine. were tied to poor control over diabetes, the experiencing any of these difficulties.—Reuters