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The article discusses how researchers are discovering that bats are the source of many strains of highly dangerous diseases. According to the researchers the viruses are not new, and that bats have carried the diseases without getting sick for hundreds of thousands of years, which indicates that something has changed that allowed the viruses to spill over into the human population. The researchers believe that the viruses may now be entering the human population because of the destruction of the bats' habitats. An overview is presented of the research being conducted on the issue.

The article examines the ethical aspects of the Ebola epidemic with origins in "the hot zone," a term for the region of over-exploited forest terrain in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. It discusses research by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggesting that the changed forest ecology has forced fruit bats, which host the Ebola virus, to move closer to human settlements. The article goes on to discuss how the impoverished healthcare systems and lack of international intervention have contributed to the outbreak.