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Ebola Outbreak Traced to Bat-Filled Tree

PATIENT ZERO

Where first victim played.

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PATRICK PLEUL/DPA/Getty

As the Ebola virus continues to rage across West Africa, some scientists have hypothesized that the outbreak may have started in a tree. According to a new hypothesis in EMBO Molecular Medicine, an insect-eating bat—mainly hunted by children but not adults—may have infected 2014’s first case, a small child.

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