₦airaland Forum

MaleoPearls:
You chop person pickin finish wan still go chop im food. #KARMA

lol... na mumu na....but d man too no try, e for jes cut d boy d-ck leave am

Bats are living up to their
frightening reputation in the world's
worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects
for spreading the deadly virus to
humans, but scientists believe they may
also shed valuable light on fighting
infection.
Bats can carry more than 100 different
viruses, including Ebola, rabies and
severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS), without becoming sick
themselves.
While that makes them a fearsome
reservoir of disease, especially in the
forests of Africa where they migrate vast
distances, it also opens the intriguing
possibility that scientists might learn
their trick in keeping killers like Ebola at
bay.
"If we can understand how they do it
then that could lead to better ways to
treat infections that are highly lethal in
people and other mammals," said Olivier
Restif, a researcher at the University of
Cambridge in Britain.
Also read: Ebola rapidly advancing in
rural Sierra Leone - report
Clues are starting to emerge following
gene analysis, which suggest bats'
capacity to evade Ebola could be linked
with their other stand-out ability, the
power of flight.
Flying requires the bat metabolism to
run at a very high rate, causing stress
and potential cell damage, and experts
think bats may have developed a
mechanism to limit this damage by
having parts of their immune system
permanently switched on.
The threat to humans from bats comes
en route to the dinner plate. Bushmeat
-- from bats to antelopes, squirrels,
porcupines and monkeys, has long held
pride of place on menus in West and
Central Africa. The danger of contracting
Ebola lies in exposure to infected blood
in the killing and preparation of animals.
Natural Hosts
Scientists studying Ebola since its
discovery in 1976 in Democratic Republic
of Congo, then Zaire, have long
suspected fruit bats as being the natural
hosts, though the link to humans is
sometimes indirect as fruit dropped by
infected bats can easily be picked up by
other species, spreading the virus to
animals such as monkeys.
This nexus of infection in wildlife leads
to sporadic Ebola outbreaks following
human contact with blood or other
infected animal fluids.
This no doubt happened in the current
outbreak, although the scale of the crisis
now gripping Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea, which has killed around 5,000
people, reflects subsequent public health
failures.
"What is happening now is a public
health disaster rather than a problem of
wildlife management," said Marcus
Rowcliffe at the Zoological Society of
London (ZSL), which runs London Zoo.
Bats' role in spreading Ebola is probably
a function both of their huge numbers,
where they rank second only to rodents
among mammals in the world, as well as
their unusual immune system, according
to Michelle Baker of the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation, Australia's national science
agency.
Baker, who is intrigued by bats' ability to
live in "equilibrium" with viruses,
published a paper with colleagues in the
journal Science last year looking at bat
genomes. They found an unexpected
concentration of genes for repairing DNA
damage, hinting at a link between flying
and immunity.
"(This) raises the interesting possibility
that flight-induced adaptations have had
inadvertent effects on bat immune
function and possibly also life
expectancy," they wrote.
Understanding Bats
As well as tolerating viruses, bats are
also amazingly long-lived. The tiny
Brandt's bat, a resident of Europe and
Asia, has been recorded living for more
than 40 years, even though it is barely
the size of a mouse. Bats also rarely get
cancer.
"We are just at the beginning," Baker
said in a telephone interview. "But if we
can understand how bats are dealing
with these viruses and if we can redirect
the immune system of other species to
react in the same way, then that could
be a potential therapeutic approach."
It won't be easy. Turning on components
of the immune system can bring its own
health problems, but the idea, which has
yet to get beyond the basic research
stage, is to turn up certain elements to
achieve a better balance.
One reason why Ebola is so deadly to
people is that the virus attacks the
immune system and when the system
finally comes back it goes into over-
drive, causing extra damage.
Ebola works in part by blocking
interferon, an anti-virus molecule, which
Baker has found to be "up-regulated",
meaning it is found in higher levels, in
bats.
Venison, with wings
The bat immune system may or may not
lead to new drugs one day. Still, experts
argue there are plenty of other reasons
to cherish bats, which also play a vital
role in pollination and controlling insect
pests.
They are also a traditional source of
protein in West Africa, often served in a
spicy stew, and restrictions on bushmeat
consumption are now contributing to
food shortages in parts of West Africa,
according to the International Food
Policy Research Institute.
Hunting and butchering bats may be
risky but cooking is thought to make
them safe. The World Health
Organization advises animals should be
handled with "gloves and other
appropriate protective clothing" and
meat should be "thoroughly cooked".
"In the long run it would be sensible to
see people moving away from hunting
bats but in the short term they provide
an important source of food," said
Rowcliffe of ZSL.
"Essentially, wild meat is a good, healthy
product. People in Britain eat venison
and rabbit, and in many ways it's no
different to that."

A father from Delhi, India invited
his 14-year-old daughter's rapist to
dinner, only to torture then kill him, the
Mirror reported.
The alleged rapist, who impregnated the
girl, was strangled to death after having
his genitals burned with heated tongs.
Also read: Alleged rapist cop freed
after paying off victim's family
The father later told police that he
didn't intend on killing the man and that
he had burned his genitals on three
occasions, whereby after the third time
he failed to move and had died.
The 36-year-old father is believed to
have gone to a police station after the
murder and confessed to the crime. The
father was later charged with murder
and arrested.
For more on this story, visit the Mirror

astronautog:
Mtn do them give me 11 sms
Etisalat do them give me 11 mms
Now airtel don do na wetin dem go give me this tym?

this time it might be 11mb.. :-D ;-D

pls sorry oh
misinformd

ON THE 31 OF OCTOBER,
PROF. DON BARIDAM (former vc of uniport) declared his aspiration to run in the 2015 governorship election in Rivers state under the platform of THE PDP....
Just less than a week ago, Barr. Nyesom Wike also declared under the same conditions...

Now, both are Ogoni men, so the fact that the governorship position is goin to an ogoni person is no longer a rumour..

But the problem now, is Who is going to win.
For we Riverz indigenes who do you think will win and who are you going to vote for?

PROF. BARIDAM or BARR. NYESOM WIKE

naturefellow:
Nice shots! Mine shows afterglow at the end of an entire day, rainy, with no sunshine.

very pretty nd relaxin scenes

;Dnyz fone
but it aint gonna sel wel in naija