Animal-to-human transmission of Ebola virus appears tied to increasing human population density in forested regions
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - 14:50
in Biology & Nature
An apparent link between human population density and vegetation cover in Africa, and the spread of the Ebola virus from animal hosts to humans, has been identified by researchers. "These findings cannot be viewed as causal due to the observational nature of the data," one investigator says, "but they do suggest that the specific landscape configuration of interaction between human populations and forested land may facilitate transmission of the Ebola virus from animals to humans."