What is the origin of the ebola virus?
The exact origin and natural reservoir of the Ebola virus is still a mystery, despite exhaustive studies. Its location appears to be the rain forests of the African continent and the Western Pacific. Although non-human primates – gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys – are the source of the infection for humans they are not considered to be the natural reservoir. Current thinking is that they are infected directly from the natural reservoir or through an infectious chain that starts with the natural reservoir. A paper in the scientific journal Nature in 2005 reported that bat species captured during outbreaks in Gabon and the Republic of Congo (2001-2003) were infected with Ebola but showed no symptoms. This suggests that they may play a role in spreading the virus- either by passing it to great apes, or even infecting humans directly. In the first outbreak in Sudan in 1976 bats were found in the roof of a cotton factory where a number of people died from the disease.
