ATLANTA - Some of the biggest dangers to human health lurk in the animal kingdom. About three out of four "emerging" diseases affect human populations from animals, according to an inventory of all human pathogens presented here Sunday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases. The study highlights the risk of ecological disturbances, such as the construction of new suburbs in the forests, which bring more people into contact with animals
Emerging diseases -. Those who are new to the human population, expanding their geographical range, or suddenly explode - often transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans or vice versa, researchers have noted for years. Hantavirus is widespread in rodents, for instance. The West Nile virus spends most of its life cycle in birds. And the most devastating disease emerge in recent history - AIDS - is thought to have originated in chimpanzees. epidemiological theory also predicts that diseases with an animal reservoir may cause more frequent relapses than those limited to human hosts, says biologist Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Yet no one has ever investigated whether zoonoses, diseases transmitted by animals are called, are actually more common in emerging diseases that among infectious diseases in general.
"It took several months of trawling through three books," to know, said Woolhouse. In the end, he and his colleagues concluded there are currently 1709 known pathogens - viruses and bacteria to fungi, protozoa and worms - that afflict humanity. 832 of these, 49% are zoonotic, the team concluded; but among the 156 diseases that are considered emerging, there were 114 zoonoses - which is 73%. To put it differently, said Woolhouse, zoonoses are three times more likely to emerge as nonzoonotic diseases and epidemiologists vigilant should keep an especially careful eye on pathogens of animal origin.
Yale medical entomologist Durland Fish appropriate. "The focus on emerging diseases should be in the field and should be geared much more environmentally friendly," said Fish. "As it is now, we wait until we have an epidemic of some new zoonotic pathogen and then try to understand what it is and why it took place."
Related Sites
Global Aspects of emerging and potential zoonoses: a WHO perspective
The International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases
0 Komentar