Behind a Waterfall Salt Cave Hidden Dangers: Marburg Virus Behind Kitum Cave

Hidden behind a waterfall in Mount Elgon National Park, Kitum Cave is a 200-metre-deep “elephant cave” that elephants visit to mine rock for salt. It harbors tens of thousands of bats whose ammonia-rich guano coats the floor. In the 1980s, two visitors died after contracting Marburg virus carried by fruit bats; the virus can cause internal bleeding and has an fatality rate up to 88%, with no vaccines or antiviral treatments, making the cave dangerous for humans (elephants appear unaffected).