Gabon researchers collect samples from a bat inside a cave, photocredit: AFP

Worldwide, many politicians and governments have declared war on fake news because most of them are misleading, cause anxiety and fear in society but governments, journalists, media houses, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control, have never made any attempt to fight against fake news about HIV-Aids and Ebola. 

It might be that some corrupt African leaders are easily brainwashed to come out with fake articles about Aids and Ebola, after taking money from those responsible for the medical genocides in Africa.

It's really shocking to read such an article captioned "Virus hunters search for threat in Gabon forest," and the publication reveals that the scene looks like something out of a science fiction movie, or maybe some dystopian TV series.

As six men in yellow biohazard suits clamber in suffocating heat towards a cave in the heart of the Gabonese jungle. Their quest: to unlock new knowledge on how pathogens like coronavirus leap the species barrier to humans.

In the cave is their goal, a colony of bats, “Our job is to look for pathogens which could endanger humans and understand how transmission happens between species,” explained Professor Gael Maganga of the University of Franceville.

Bats can be hosts to viruses that do not harm them but can be dangerous to Homo sapiens, often crossing via other animals. COVID-19 is just the latest microbe believed to have taken the zoonotic path from animals to humans.

Who told Professor Gael Maganga of the University of Franceville, that "COVID-19 is just the latest microbe believed to have taken the zoonotic path from animals to humans when it's a biological weapon?" Where did Prof. Gael Manganga have his education?

The professor revealed more of his ignorance as he explains further: "It notably follows three other respiratory viruses, MERS in 2012, SARS in 2003 and H5N1 flu in 1997; the hemorrhagic virus Ebola in 1976; and AIDS, which is believed to have crossed over from chimps about a century ago, possibly through hunters who handled infected meat."

'Bullshit Professor, what we know is both hemorrhagic fever Ebola and Aids are biological weapons, so we don't know where this Professor made his research and found out that "Ebola in 1976; and AIDS, which is believed to have crossed over from chimps about a century ago, possibly through hunters who handled infected meat."

Getting to the cave is hard work. The team has to almost wade through thick soil, pieces of bark, and russet-colored leaves that exhale the musky perfume of the forest. The environment here – hot and humid and filled with natural hazards – is tough for humans, but perfect for viruses.

Bit by bit, the scent of damp earth yields to the smell of bat droppings, which eventually becomes suffocating in the sticky air. Bees and silvery butterflies dance around the heads of the virus hunters, their faces dripping in sweat beneath their goggles.

Above them, the treetops seem to lose themselves in the sky and gnarly creepers hang down as if suspended from the heavens. The mouth of the cave suddenly rears up ahead, and a stream of bats flies out. Thick white bedding of bat droppings spreads across the ground and the rocks.

Professor Maganga calls on the team to stretch a net across the cave’s dark maw and the bats, suddenly sensing the alien presence of humans, start to hunker down inside. But one of the scientists moves forward, shining his torch inside. Bats fly out and get caught in the net.

Now the real scientific stuff can begin. The team take out sterile swabs and take samples from the bats’ mouths and rectums. These are then carefully stored for transport back to the lab, where they will be analyzed for any emerging pathogen.

To any who would blame the bats for the catastrophe of coronavirus, the scientists are bluntly dismissive. Human encroachment on their habitat, they said, has brought the two mammal species into closer, riskier proximity.

“Human behavior is often the cause of an emerging virus,” said Maganga. “Today, with population pressure, intensified farming or hunting, contact between humans and animals is more and more frequent.”

Maganga is also Co-Director of the Emerging Viral Diseases Unit at Franceville’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Medical Research (CIRMF). It hosts one of Africa’s two P4 laboratories – ultra-high-risk labs that operate at top levels of security.

A report issued in October by the United Nation’s (UN) biodiversity panel IPBES said there were up to 850,000 viruses that exist in animals and may infect humans.

Seventy percent of emerging diseases circulate in animals before jumping to humans, and each year around five new diseases break out among humans, it said.

Pauline Grentzinger, a vet at the Lekedi Nature Park, a biodiversity haven near Franceville warned against the conventional thinking “that it’s humans on one side and animals on the other.”

“In health terms, what happens with one (species) has the repercussion on the other. To protect natural fauna is to protect humans,” she said.

In Gabon, every outbreak of Ebola has occurred in the Zadie Caves area, which lies close to the border with the Republic of Congo. CIRMF researchers have found samples of the Ebola virus among bats, confirming that the flying mammals were the host.

Maganga has also uncovered a number of coronavirus strains circulating among bats, including some that are close to the COVID-19 strain that infects humans.

Despite the obvious risk, hunters still come into the area to hunt for animals – antelopes, gazelles, monkeys, and bats. In April, Gabon imposed a ban on the sale of bats and pangolins, another species deemed to be a potential vector of coronavirus.

But villagers living near the caves say they have yet to see a case of COVID-19 – and for many, poverty seems to trump any danger. “In one night, I can earn a month’s money,” said 43-year-old hunter Aristide Roux, showing the body of a gazelle on a tree stump by the side of the road.

Editorial 

If CIRMF researchers have found samples of the Ebola virus among bats, confirming that the flying mammals were the host, doesn't mean bats are responsible for Ebola, the virus is a biological weapon by the US government.

"Their quest is to unlock new knowledge on how pathogens like coronavirus leap the species barrier to humans?" What the hell are they looking for in a Gabonese cave when the coronavirus has killed thousands of Europeans and Americans, with less impact on Africa?

In fact, these deceptive articles are some of the reasons, worldwide, many don't have any trust in the World Health Organization (WHO)  and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 

Both health institutions and governments can continue to enjoy or be restless with impunity but they can never force the public that has lost trust and confidence in them to regain their confidence.

People are now aware of such false articles, therefore, they don't even waste their precious time to make a comment.