Scientists have linked the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus to its likely source, a bat. The virus was a 100 percent genetic match, and was discovered in an insect-eating bat in Saudi Arabia, near the first human case of MERS in the country. Scientists agree that this evidence suggests that the bat is responsible for the virus affecting humans in the area but clarify that there was likely an intermediary between the bat and human.

 

The investigators from Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity at the Mailman School of Public Health as well as EcoHealth Alliance, and the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia set out to determine the origins of the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia.