Aug 21, 2013 03:39 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Scientists have found the origin of the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) to come from bats in Saudi Arabia, Live Science reported.

A new study, published Wednesday in Emerging Infectious Diseases, suggests the virus is the origin of MERS, as it had a 100 percent match to the virus found in humans. The bats were also found just seven miles from the home of the suspected first MERS patient.

According to the World Health Organization, MERS has infected 94 people and caused 46 deaths since Sept. 2012, when it was first discovered in Saudi Arabia. In another study published earlier this month, researchers found traces of the disease in camels, but only had enough evidence to say the animal carried MERS at one point.

"There have been several reports of finding MERS-like viruses in animals. None were a genetic match. In this case, we have a virus in an animal that is identical in sequence to the virus found in the first human case. Importantly, it's coming from the vicinity of that first case," study researcher Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement.

The researchers of the new study suggested the bats gave the disease to other animals, like the camels found to have carried MERS. Humans do not often come in contact with bats.

The researchers noted bats are known to carry infectious diseases like rabies and SARS, the highly dangerous respiratory disease that killed nearly 800 of the 8,000 it infected in Southeast Asia in 2002 and 2003.

Previous research suggested MERS does not pose the same threat SARS did. That research suggested most people infected with MERS already had a chronic health condition and killed many people who were already sick.

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