Research continues to better understand white-nose syndrome, and scientists are beginning to see promising results that could eventually help treat and recover affected bats, but so far nothing has been found to stop or even slow the bat disease that is spreading across North America.

White-nose syndrome has now been confirmed in 26 states and five Canadian provinces, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports.

On May 19, the U.S. Forest Service and partners released bats in Missouri that had contracted white-nose syndrome last fall but were treated with a bacterium over the winter and survived.

The treated bats will be monitored to see if they remain healthy. Early results show promise at thwarting the disease and even reducing it in infected bats, although researchers haven’t figured out how to treat more than a few bats at a time.

In another study, University of California-Santa Cruz researchers in April published the results of laboratory studies that showed how bacteria found naturally on some bats inhibited growth of the fungus that causes the disease.

It’s not clear how the bacteria works or why some bats have it and others don’t.

Not all of the news is bad. In one Vermont cave where a quarter-million bats died a few years ago from white-nose syndrome, a few bats have returned. Scientists are trying to find out why they survived when others couldn’t.

Meanwhile, a wildlife veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin confirmed the disease kills bats by causing their bodies to overheat, burning energy too quickly and at a time - in winter - when no insects are present to replace the lost calories.

Researchers also are working to find fungicides that might kill white-nose syndrome. And scientists at UC San Francisco and Brown University recently figured out the likely way that white-nose syndrome breaks down tissue in bats, opening the door to potential treatments.

“The results of this new research sound promising, and we are hopeful that it may eventually give us a safe and effective treatment to use in the field,” said Jeremy Coleman, white-nose syndrome national coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a statement. “As more potential treatments continue to be developed, we are optimistic that we are nearing a tipping point in our ability to combat WNS.”

In the meantime, experts say the best thing that can be done for bats is to make sure as many survive as possible, that their reproduction continues and that the bats we have remain healthy, well-fed and well-sheltered in summer before they enter their winter caves to hibernate.