Devastating diseases such as Ebola, AIDS or currently Covid-19 have something in common: their pathogens have spread from animals to humans.
By Andrew Weber
The face of the 40-year-old woman on the hospital bed looks small and fragile, pale despite the suntan that a few weeks of trekking holidays in East Africa have given her skin. The Dutch woman returned to the town of Bakel just a few days ago.
She had crossed Uganda and visited the python cave in Queen Elizabeth National Park. With a guide, she had descended to the dark chasms at the foot of a cliff, where thousands of fruit bats of the species Rousettus aegyptiacus buzzed around the invaders’ roost: an exotic experience, up close and personal with Africa’s most remote nature.