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Boy and bats spread Ebola in West Africa, say scientists
London: A young boy playing near a colony of virus-infected bats may have precipitated the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, scientists said Tuesday.
The two-year-old boy – described as the index case, or “patient zero” – became infected and was the first to die in the village of Meliandou in Guinea, the Daily Mail reported.
Before his death, he had been near a tree harbouring free-tailed bats, according to reports.
Subsequently, the Ebola virus spread to other areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal.
The epidemic represents the largest ever-recorded Ebola outbreak, killing 7,800 people by Dec 17, 2014.
Fruit bats are the commonly suspected carriers of the Ebola virus and have been linked to previous outbreaks in Africa.
They are often hunted for food, but according to scientists, food-borne transmission would have affected adults before or at the same time as the two-year-old boy.
This suggested a source of infection unrelated to food and that the boy somehow came into contact with the insect-eating free-tailed bats.
Researchers from the Robert Koch-Institute in Berlin were part of a team, which took part in a four-week field mission in Guinea.
This was to examine human exposure to bats, survey the local wildlife and capture and sample bats in Meliandou and in neighbouring forests.
However, the village where the boy died was not located in the forest. Instead, the source of the infection was probably a large colony of free-tailed insectivorous bats occupying a hollow tree, scientists concluded.
Villagers reported that children often used to play in and around the tree, which might have resulted in a massive exposure to the bats.
According to researcher Fabian Leendertz, the Ebola virus is transmitted to humans either through contact with larger wildlife or by direct contact with bats.
Writing in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine he said: “We monitored large mammal populations close to the index village Meliandou in south-eastern Guinea and found no evidence of a concurrent outbreak.”
Instead, a more plausible source of the outbreak was contact with bats, rather than larger wildlife.
The Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. It is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
Symptoms of the disease typically start between two days and three weeks after contracting the virus.
In the beginning, the symptoms may range from fever, sore throat, muscle pain, and headache.
Then, vomiting and diarrhoea usually follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. Some of those affected may also bleed both internally and externally.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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