Category Archives: Ebola outbreak

Bats

Love them or hate them, you have to admit that there is something fascinating about bats. (Also arachnids, such as tarantulas, and snakes. But later for these)

My spouse, Lovina, – and spice – for the last 2/3 of a century, has a Master’s degree in organ performance from the University of Utah. Some years ago she was invited to play the beautiful pipe organ for a concert in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. This is an impressive structure separate from the Tabernacle and Temple. It had been discovered that the building had bats in its attic (belfry?). Before the day of the concert, that structure had been fumigated. With the result that during the concert, many displaced bats were flying around overhead making their little squeaking chirps. I was sitting in the balcony so as to have a good line of sight to the organ. And Lovina. And also to a performance I have never seen before or since. A small troop of ushers with 20 foot poles and butterfly nets traipsing up and down the aisles catching bats. When they were lucky. All the while attempting to be as inconspicuous as possible. With less than the desired results in either endeavor.

In spite of the side show, the concert was a resounding success. And memorable.

Friend or Foe

With this introduction, we come to the main purpose of this essay. Recently there was a TV special on bats by NOVA. As a physician, I was aware, of course, of the reputation of bats (and rats and cats) as carriers of various nefarious diseases. Think rabies, especially, but bats have been implicated in Ebola and histoplasmosis and are thought to maybe be the main reservoir of our friend, the coronavirus.

But is a bat a friend or foe? In war it is a life or death decision to know what the other guy is. (In the Civil War, the outcome may have been altered if Stonewall Jackson had not been mortally wounded by friendly fire.)

But how about bats? This essay is not intended to be an attempt to educate on the biology of the Order Chiroptera. For that I happily refer you to the delightful book by Merlin Tuttle, PhD, called, “The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammals” (2015).

As NOVA pointed out, bats have certain unique features that may lead to discoveries about human diseases. For example, longevity. Most bats are in the size range of mice which live about 2 or 3 years. But bats have been documented to live for 10 times as long, into their 30s and 40s. Is their secret hidden in their telomeres? Furthermore, they may actually be carriers of various deadly viruses such as Ebola and, of course, the coronaviruses. They may also carry rabies but this hazard to humans has been blown way out of reason. But how do they carry these viruses without being killed by them? If our immune systems were as effective as those of bats, we would be a happier, healthier society.

Bats may, or may not, be important vectors of virulent human viruses, but what are they good for? While a few of the larger bats prefer to feast on fruit and some have a taste for frogs, most are insectivorous. They come out of their caves every evening by the millions and devour ton quantities of insects that otherwise devour food crops. Farmers are saved from expense, and society is saved from the ravages of pesticides distributed to the environment.

That is not all. The insects are converted into commercially valuable fertilizer, guano. And bats are champs in the pollination sweepstakes. And while they are at it, they disperse undigested seeds over wide areas. Which is important for reforestation after forest fires. And as if that were not enough, they can boost the local economy through tourism, as in the Congress Bridge bat colony in Austin, TX.

But despite their proven benefits to humanity, bat populations are plummeting in many areas because bats are considered to be pests and therefore foes to be annihilated. Tuttle is out to reeducate the world. And he makes a powerful case. I wish all the “batophiles,” such as Dr Tuttle and many other “batty” scientists and enlightened citizens great success.

Gordon Short, MD
Brevis Corporation

References:

  • Merlin Tuttle: The Secret Lives of Bats, My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammals. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2018)
  • Michael J. Harvey, Scott Altenbach, Troy L. Best: Bats of the United States and Canada. Johns Hopkins University Press (2011)
  • Marianne Taylor & Merlin D. Tuttle: BATS, an illustrated guide to all species. Smithsonian Books (2019)
  • The Secret World of Bats: Bat Conservation International (2005) DVD, 48 minutes.
  • BAT Superpowers, The Amazing Biology of Bats: NOVA (2021) DVD, 55 minutes.

Ebola Virus Giant Microbe

Ebola Again

Africa is experiencing a sad case of deja vu as Ebola rears its ugly head again. A recent outbreak in Congo has health professionals on high alert. Make sure your team is prepared should the need arise for PPE protocols. This teaching set from Brevis includes GlitterBug Powder and the UVA LED SpotShooter8 Lamp. Apply a small amount of GlitterBug Powder to the PPE before doffing and then use the lamp to illuminate contamination.

Glitterbug PPE Training Set

How fear-mongering over “Ebolanoia” helped improve infection control

Ebola virus

“Ebolanoia”—the unfounded hysteria over Ebola—has swept over North America. Now the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says there’s a flu epidemic raging in America. Scary? The World Health Organization estimates that about 250k to 500k people worldwide die every year from influenza. Fortunately, doctors were ready to fight what is a common winter illness, despite the rise in cases. Beyond Ebola and influenza, there are still other emerging diseases of concern—Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), pandemic flu, Marburg virus, dengue fever and Enterovirus D68. Health officials are monitoring these, but there is still good news.

In 2014, we saw some unprecedented changes and an increased focus on infection control in hospitals in the United States and around the globe. The CDC released a report this week that shows hospitals in the U.S. have made progress in lowering the rates of infections for patients. Specifically, from 2008 to 2013, there was a 46% decrease in infections caused by germs getting into the blood (when tubes aren’t inserted into veins correctly). During that same period, hospitals cut surgical site infections by 19% as well as catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 6%.

CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement to Time Magazine, “Hospitals have made real progress to reduce some types of healthcare-associated infections—it can be done. The key is for every hospital to have rigorous infection control programs to protect patients and healthcare workers, and for health care facilities and others to work together to reduce the many types of infections that haven’t decreased enough.”

Preventing infections saves lives—and money!

A new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control says preventing two of the most common healthcare-associated infections reduces the cost of patient care by more than $150,000. The cost of running an infection prevention program in the ICU is about $145,000.

The Ebola outbreak rages on in Africa. Time magazine even awarded the Ebola caregivers—those who fight Ebola across the world, for their incredible selflessness—as the Time Person of the Year. They write, “Ebola is a war, and a warning. The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and ‘us’ means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day.”

Positive action around the globe

Last year, thanks to positive action in Ireland—including campaigns exhorting handwashing and a more cautious use of antibiotics—infection levels fell significantly. A proactive infection prevention plan implemented widely in a Hong Kong healthcare system also proved to be a significant factor preventing the spread of influenza strain A H7N9 (Avian flu) last year. You can find a detailed breakdown of five major infection control occurrences that affected U.S. hospitals this past year at Becker’s Hospital Review, too. And the list goes on.

Patricia Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN, director of the Center for Health Policy at Columbia University School of Nursing says, “The Ebola outbreak is a reminder that we cannot afford to let our guard down or grow complacent. Any death from preventable infections is one too many. We’ve known for decades what works to prevent infections and save lives and now our study shows just how much money can be saved by investing in prevention.”

Has your hospital, healthcare facility, school, or community implemented more training or action to prevent infections? Share your insights with us!