Fruit bats have been confirmed as the natural hosts of the Nipah virus, which
killed more than 100 people in Malaysia and Singapore last year. Kenneth Lam Sai
Kit and his colleagues at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur last year
found antibodies to the virus in blood from the island flying fox (Pteropus
hypomelaunus), a fruit bat native to the region
(New Scientist, 22 May 1999, p 12).
Now they are certain that bats are to blame, as they have found
traces of the virus itself in samples of bat urine.
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