KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The state of Melaka is upset that scientists have named a new bat-borne virus after it, news reports said Sunday.
Australian and Malaysian scientists announced last week they had discovered a new virus likely carried by bats that can cause respiratory illness in humans.
They called it the Melaka virus, using the name of the southern state where it was isolated in early 2006 in a human patient.
Chief Minister Ali Rustam said Saturday the state does not want to be associated with the virus and called the name choice "an insult" to Melaka, which is a popular tourist destination because of its historical sites.
"Melaka is a good state, beautiful and peaceful, not the birthplace of diseases," The Star daily quoted him as saying.
Ali said the state government would lodge a formal protest with Malaysia's health ministry.
A spokesman in Ali's office could not immediately be contacted. Health ministry officials declined to comment.
The virus was detected after the man in Melaka developed high fever and acute respiratory illness last year about a week after a bat entered his home. Two of his children had milder symptoms, and the entire family has since recovered.
Virus samples taken from the man and his children proved similar, and researchers found it was closely related to another virus that was isolated in the late 1990s in fruit bats, also in southern Malaysia.
