When trees are cut down, pools of infested water are left exposed in the forest, Heymann said. Anne Marie Kimball, an expert in infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, blames deforestation for recent Ebola outbreaks. As people penetrate the forest in search of firewood, they can be exposed to the virus, which might otherwise have been relatively contained, she said.
Destroying the rain forests also has led to a loss of wildlife that protects against infectious diseases, said Epstein.
Cutting down the forest can sometimes change the mice population from forest to field mice, Epstein added, which can bring about new viruses such as one responsible for a deadly fever in Bolivia. Global warming Several aspects of climate change, all related to global warming, are contributing the emergence of new diseases and the resurgence of others, the experts say. Warming itself is allowing malaria to spread to higher altitudes, Kimball said, noting that the mosquitoes that carry the disease to humans can survive only at milder temperatures.
Once confined to lower areas, the skin-piercing insects are now able to flourish in the African highlands of Kenya. The outbreaks have been devastating, Epstein said. With poor access to health care, many residents were sickened and killed as malaria swept through several villages.
The results: huge clusters of mosquito-borne malaria and Rift Valley fever as well as an epidemic of the water-borne disease cholera. The fires bring haze, choking, air particulates and respiratory ills. Membranes dry, making residents susceptible to deadly meningitis. Cholera-infested waters limited the sale of fish. But I have reason for hope.
This gathering culminated in the AU heads of state and government committing to increase domestic investment in health-care infrastructure, and to work with the private sector to do so. This is the first time such high-level discussions on or commitments to domestic investment in health systems have occurred. The moment felt like a game-changer — it established a mechanism to move forward where none had existed.
Three of the biggest turning points in the fight against HIV started with similar proclamations, each catalysing others. Still, no one doubts that this road map for pandemic preparedness requires unprecedented levels of political and financial engagement. It is difficult, but achievable. The health of the continent, and of the world, depends on all of us keeping our commitments.
News 12 NOV News 11 NOV World View 09 NOV News Feature 03 NOV Editorial 03 NOV Correspondence 02 NOV Francis Crick Institute. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.
Advanced search. Analyses of bat coronaviruses , including SARS-Cov-2 , indicate that they may more easily mutate to infect humans than in the past. What might change in the frequency of zoonotic pathogen emergence and spread from intermediate or amplifier animal species.
For some emerging zoonoses, the spread of infections in domestic animal species is the key factor. For both Nipah and MERS the latter caused by a coronavirus , the spread from bats to intermediate domestic animal hosts was important in the subsequent emergence of the disease in humans.
Influenza viruses have been responsible for many epidemics over the past centuries, including the flu pandemic of — that killed more people than any other documented pandemic—one-third of the world was infected and around 50 million people died. Interestingly, in the H5N1 avian flu epidemic of — that caused global animal and human health concerns, H5N1 infections became endemic in Indonesia but were relatively quickly eliminated following their introduction in West Africa, perhaps because Indonesia at that time had much greater poultry densities than West Africa.
But West African poultry density is now catching up to Asia. What is changing in human societies that facilitates the spread of emerging zoonotic pathogens. Increasing human populations, urbanization, and rising incomes are changing Africa in fundamental ways.
One major change is a dramatic increase in air travel between Africa and the rest of the world. While traditionally most African travel connections have been through Europe or the Middle East, in the past decade the number of African connections to Asia has been rising.
Relative to COVID, Marius Gilbert and colleagues combined data on Chinese air travel connections with available indices on health preparedness and infectious disease vulnerability indices to rank country risk.
As noted above, Ebola outbreaks in Africa have usually been contained locally; the West Africa Ebola epidemic spread through countries with very weak health systems.
In , an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo persisted as it occurred in a conflict zone. Implications and opportunities for controlling emerging infectious diseases in Africa. The rising risk of emergence and spread of zoonoses in Africa has significant consequences for the continent and the rest of the world.
Epidemics in recent decades have varied in both their causes and effects and there are no common guidelines for the prevention or early control of zoonotic diseases. Governments and organizations should also adopt a coordinated One Health response across human, animal and environmental health.
Bringing these three disciplines together is essential to respond to the increasing threat of emerging zoonoses in Africa. The record thus far on COVID and on past disease outbreaks shows that early, effective, and sustained response is essential to winning the battle over these diseases. Innovative use of information and communication tools and platforms and engagement of local communities are crucial to improved disease surveillance and effective response.
Building these systems requires demand from the public commitment from policymakers and investors. COVID is a game-changer.
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