Ebola meets the Vampire bat

So I decided to add my own 2 cents of Ebola doom-porn. I really hope it's as stupid as the sharknado but some part of this is really scary.

From wiki on vampire bats.

The common vampire bat feeds mostly on the blood of mammals (occasionally including humans), whereas both the hairy-legged vampire bat and white-winged vampire bat feed on the blood of birds. Once the common vampire bat locates a host, such as a sleeping mammal, it lands and approaches it on the ground. It then likely uses thermoception to identify a warm spot on the skin to bite. They then create a small incision with their teeth and lap up blood from the wound.

The bat’s saliva, left in the victim's resulting bite wound, has a key function in feeding from the wound. The saliva contains several compounds that prolong bleeding, such as anticoagulants that inhibit blood clotting, and compounds that prevent the constriction of blood vessels near the wound

Now we all should know by now that Ebola either uses the African bat population as a reservoir, or a vector, or both. There are a lot of conflicting stories on this but the fact remains that bats in Africa are Ebola prone.

If Ebola can infect a monkey, a pig, a bat, and a human, it's not a stretch to assume that Ebola can infect an American bat just as well as an African bat.

According to the CDC Ebola is transmitted through

blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola

and

However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats.

.

So let us create the Ebola-bat situation.

1. A person from a heavily infected country desperate to flee wishes to travel to the U.S. but due to travel difficulties has to go through the southern border first. This person arrives in whatever south of the border country with the intention to make it north to the U.S. Unwittingly this person is infected with Ebola and only starts showing symptoms after arrival into the New World.

2. The now symptomatic person creates a small Ebola cluster in south of the border America. Or he hides in a ditch and dies without exposing anyone. But while hiding, which would be in a place not as comfortable or sheltered as home, he gets exposed to a hungry vampire bat which is drawn to his warm feverish skin and somewhat persistently drowsy nature. Or maybe a dog or rat eats the corpse and a vampire bat feeds from that dog.

3. The vampire bat full of Ebola blood decides to share some of its meal by means of regurgitation with less fortunate vampires that couldn't score such an easy dinner. Did I mention that vampire bats share meals? The next three weeks the bats go out at night and feed on pigs, cows, horses, maybe a few humans injecting some of that anti-coagulant saliva. And a new group of bats feeds from the same meals.

4. Ebola and it's zoonotic capabilities allows the virus to mutate in a way to live within the American mammal population. With vampire bats accelerating the spread of Ebola, entire herds of livestock get infected with the virus.

5. Humans love their meat but sometimes under cook it. Hundreds get infected through Ebola food poisoning. A few get directly infected by bats. Thousands more get infected soon after. Populations start to panic. Massive culling of livestock and wild animals ensue. Entire economies get destroyed and millions head north to the U.S. which currently is successful in stamping out Ebola clusters.

6. The U.S. southern border gets overwhelmed with millions of economic (and pandemic) refugees and many thousands of such refugees are currently infected.

7. Ebola can be extremely expensive to successfully treat. The new large influx of Ebola infected quickly overwhelm the medical system. Health care workers either get infected or stop showing up to work.

8. Sharknado

The above situation may seem a bit ridiculous but it is very possible that Ebola can hit south or central America where the vampire bats live. While Ebola may not directly get to the bats during feeding, it can work its way through mammal populations to eventually get to bats. Vampire bats have direct physical and bodily fluid contact to mammal populations unlike the bats of Africa and can turn all of southern and central America into a super Ebola mutation environment which there is no escape. Imagine a new Ebola cropping up like the flu every year, always different so it can't be cured, but many more times deadly.

a reply to: Vikus

Came for the movie, left with some good information. Thanks.

a reply to: Vikus

It sounds more than possible. Not many people seem to touch wild bats in America, those that do are usually trying to get rid of them or one brushes up against them. Dogs and livestock can help it no doubt, the Spanish nurse's dog was put down for that reason.

I noticed that the White Nose Syndrome started taking a toll on bats in America. And bats carry Ebola, could there be a connection between WNS and trying to stop an outbreak here until it's needed?

S + F

you seem to forget the saying "Truth is always stranger than fiction."

But what you have pointed out is totally plausible. Scary indeed.

What about tics and bed bugs ? In Dirty hotels, movie theatres and airplanes... Doom porn..

a reply to: dollukka

Or mosquitoes and bedbugs if it's possible.

There is no proof yet for non mammals carrying Ebola, thankfully.