Scientific American
Pathogen Discovered That Kills Endangered Chimps: Is It a Threat to Humans?
An Ebola outbreak and a few false leads slowed a 15-year search for bacteria that attack the nerves and gut
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On a Friday evening in mid-January, Jackson, a five-year-old chimp living at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone, alarmed his keepers by ignoring his dinner. By Saturday, he was lethargic and having seizures. Jackson has improved since then—he is eating and seems stable, despite lingering diarrhea—but his survival is by no means guaranteed. “The disease is very much like that: you see ups and downs,” says veterinarian Andrea Pizarro, general manager at Tacugama. “One day they’re very good, the next, they’re very bad.”