‘It’s only a matter of time’: bat-human virus spillovers may be very common, study finds
- Researchers say hundreds of thousands of people might be infected with the bat pathogens each year
- But much more data needed to firm up the estimate, team says
Some 400,000 people across Southeast Asia and southern China may be infected by Sars-related bat coronaviruses on average each year, though most infections go undetected and may not spread, according to research from a team of emerging infectious disease specialists.
“It seems like a huge number, but when you think about the number of people that live in that region – it’s hundreds of millions of people with a very active wildlife trade, high exposure to wildlife and tens of millions of bats flying out every night ... and eventually you get infected,” co-author Peter Daszak said.
“Then it’s only a matter of time that one of those viruses is able to take off [into an outbreak].”
The findings, which have yet to be peer reviewed, were released on a preprint server this week.