A CDC map shows infection levels in West Africa.

Children’s play area near bat colony eyed as possible source of infection

Staff Report

FRISCO — A research team suspects that the recent West African Ebola outbreak may have started  from contact between humans and virus-infected bats, perhaps as children played near a  large colony of free-tailed insectivorous bats housed in a hollow tree near the village where the outbreak started.

In a study published this week in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, the scientists said that may have resulted in ” a massive exposure to bats.”