A framework for the study of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers: spillover of bat pathogens as a case study

Wood, James L. N.; Leach, Melissa; Waldman, Linda; MacGregor, Hayley; Fooks, Anthony R.; Jones, Kate E.; Restif, Olivier; Dechmann, Dina; Hayman, David T. S.; Baker, Kate S.; Peel, Alison J.; Kamins, Alexandra O.; Fahr, Jakob; Ntiamoa-Baidu, Yaa; Suu-Ire, Richard; Breiman, Robert F.; Epstein, Jonathan H.; Field, Hume E.; Cunningham, Andrew A.

If understandings of symptoms caused by infections from bats exist, or when epidemiological links with bats in clinical cases are found, possible routes of transfer can then be investigated-and triangulated with the studies of human -bat interactions described earlier. People's attitudes to past disease surveillance measures and health education initiatives should be elicited to assess the extent to which these might influence contemporary illness concepts and attitudes. Beliefs about bat-associated diseases on the part of health care workers need to be recorded alongside observation of clinic culture and diagnostic practices. The importance of this was exemplified in Bangladesh, where bats were rejected as a source of Nipah virus in favour of superstitious causes, even among healthcare workers, which obviously then can impede containment and control measures [93] .