Blog 6: Diseases - Connection between Humans and Animals

This article, “The Ecology of Diseases”, talks about how global diseases emerged. We have heard about the ecosystem; forests filter the water we drink, trees filter the air we breathe, and some animals control bug population as well as become food for humans (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).

Humans that interfere with the forests, and wildlife causes and imbalance, “infectious disease that shows that most epidemics like AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, Lyme disease, hundreds more that have occurred over the last several decades are the result of things people do to nature (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)”.

The article states that disease is mainly an environmental issue. Sixty percent of emerging infectious diseases that affect humans are zoonotic (a disease that can be transmitted from vertebrate animals to humans). Two-thirds of those originated in wildlife (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).

Many veterinarians, conservation biologists, medical doctors, and epidemiologists are working on a global effort to understand the “ecology of disease”. They are working diligently to head off the next pandemic. This article states, “This is not only a public health issue, but an economic one”. The article goes on to say, “the International Livestock Research Institute found that more than two million people a year are killed by diseases that spread to humans from wild and domestic animals”( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).

The article talked about how fruit bats spread viruses like Nipah virus and Hendra virus. The fruit bats habitation has been disturb causing them to find other places to dwell, which happen to be close to livestock and pastures. Preventions are being implemented to slow down the spread of these viruses and other viruses that are occurring, like at international airports, there are securities placed to search for exotic pets because most of these pets house viruses that can or may transfer to humans.

The article states “just an estimated 1 percent of wildlife viruses are known” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0