ArticleEMBO molecular medicine2015
Investigating the zoonotic origin of the West African Ebola epidemic.
Article in EMBO molecular medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 202 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
202 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 448 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of health risk assessment in Africa's bushmeat trade: Are there any risks assessed?PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Unveiling the hidden threats: a review of pathogen diversity and public health risks from bats, rodents, and non-human primates in Zambia (1990-2022).Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Early transmission and case fatality of Ebola virus at the index site of the 2013-16 west African Ebola outbreak: a cross-sectional seroprevalence survey.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2019Pooled it
- Filovirus reactive antibodies in wildlife hunting communities suggest ongoing zoonotic spillover in forested Guinea.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Strengthening diagnostic capacity for viral hemorrhagic fevers in Forest Guinea: advances in Lassa fever case detection.Npj viruses · 2026Article
- Enhancing Global Health Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case for integrated One Health surveillance against zoonotic diseases and environmental threats.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Assessing Ebola virus circulation in the Tshuapa province (Democratic Republic of the Congo): A One Health investigation of wildlife and human interactions.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
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- Mapping the Potential Risk of Coronavirus Spillovers in a Global Hotspot.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Viral ecology in chiroptera: human-wildlife interactions and pandemic risk.Veterinary research communications · 2025Review
- A Roadmap of Primary Pandemic Prevention Through Spillover Investigation.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Review
- From Bat to Worse: The Pivotal Role of Bats for Viral Zoonosis.Microbial biotechnology · 2025Review
- Co-designing zoonotic diseases prevention practices when people depend on wild meat.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Where is the elusive primaryBioscience · 2025Article
- Decoding the blueprint of receptor binding by filoviruses through large-scale binding assays and machine learning.Cell host & microbe · 2025Article
- Vulnerability characteristics and adaptation strategies of public health systems in different regions of China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Marburg and Sudan viruses elicit divergent interferon responses and cytokine storm signaling in Egyptian rousette bat macrophages.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
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- Pandemic-Proofing: Intercepting Zoonotic Spillover Events.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
142 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
30 authors at 10 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The severe Ebola virus disease epidemic occurring in West Africa stems from a single zoonotic transmission event to a 2-year-old boy in Meliandou, Guinea. We investigated the zoonotic origins of the epidemic using wildlife surveys, interviews, and molecular analyses of bat and environmental samples. We found no evidence for a concurrent outbreak in larger wildlife. Exposure to fruit bats is common in the region, but the index case may have been infected by playing in a hollow tree housing a colony of insectivorous free-tailed bats (Mops condylurus). Bats in this family have previously been discussed as potential sources for Ebola virus outbreaks, and experimental data have shown that this species can survive experimental infection. These analyses expand the range of possible Ebola virus sources to include insectivorous bats and reiterate the importance of broader sampling efforts for understanding Ebola virus ecology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.