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Article: Our Most Deadly Diseases Have Made the Leap from Animals to Humans.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- April 29, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Stephen Smith, The Boston Globe Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 29--At all started with the fruit bats, the ones with a weakness for mango and a reputation for nasty table manners.
It ended with 1.1 million pigs slaughtered, 105 humans dead, and the discovery of a new peril to mankind.
When the curtain rose on Nipah virus in 1998, it was a drama in three acts, spotlighting performances from bats, pigs, and humans in a story as old as the first microbes to spread disease and misery on Earth. Somehow the virus catapulted from one species to another and then a third, with profoundly varying health consequences.
Now, ...