An Ebola Virus Treatment Center In Monrovia
A man stands at the gate of an Ebola virus treatment center in Monrovia September 21, 2014. Reuters

A new report suggests that the recent Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa may have been caused by bats. Governments in the region are coordinating with the efforts of WHO and other countries to help the victims.

Citing "circumstantial evidence," Derek Gatherer, a bioinformatics researcher at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, believes that the virus may have been hiding in some of the bat species found in the region. According to the report published by Live Science, the three bat species that carry the virus as a reservoir are the hammer-head bat, Franquet's epauletted fruit bat and the little collared fruit bat.

According to the report, bats are eaten in the region, with bat soup being a local delicacy. However, the report says that it is not the person eating bats who is at risk, since the Ebola virus dies at the time of cooking, but the person who handles the raw bat meat. Guinea has reportedly banned the sale and consumption of bat meat since the outbreak.

Some of the methods implemented to contain the spread of the virus are travel restrictions and flight cancellations, according to WHO

. However, such restrictions are hampering the relief and response measures of the organisation and other countries, which may contribute to the further spread of the virus and negatively affect the economy of the countries currently battling the outbreak.

WHO is currently assessing the capabilities of the countries to see if they will be able to handle the situation in case the Ebola virus spreads. Countries like Nigeria and Senegal have reportedly been relatively successful in containing the virus.

According to reports, the relief measures in some parts of Africa have been hampered because locals believed the Ebola virus was brought to the region by healthcare workers from the outside. Readers should note, however, that many health workers who have travelled to the region to treat Ebola virus victims have been infected as well. Some of the healthcare workers have also lost their lives.

According to WHO figures, there have been 5,843 cases of the Ebola virus reported between March 23 and Sept 22, 2014 and 2,803 deaths. A total of 337 health care workers are said to have been affected by the virus and 181 are reported to have died.