Wise Ecology May Reduce Spread Of Infectious Disease

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Wise Ecology May Reduce Spread of Infectious Disease

By MedHeadlines

Feb 20th, 2008

 

Category: Headlines, Infectious Disease, MRSA, Medical Research,

Meningitis

 

For the first time ever, an international team of researchers has

mapped out the areas around the world where infectious diseases,

passed from animals to humans, have originated. Using data that dates

back to the early 1940s, the study concludes that diseases that

originate in animals, called zoonoses, are the biggest threat to

humans today.

 

Infectious diseases such as HIV, Ebola, West Nile virus, and Severe

Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) all originated in animals and were

spread to humans, who then spread them around the world. These

diseases emerged from areas rich with wildlife but which are

suffering from the rise in the human population. Encroachment on

animals' natural habitats is thought to be one important avenue of

contagion.

 

There were 335 individual incidents of disease emergence studied,

with their points of origin mapped to isolate " hotspots " of

infection. This ground-breaking procedure allowed scientists to not

only map the spread of the diseases but they have also determined

that the next likely source of new and emerging diseases is the

Tropics, where animal life still flourishes but is threatened by the

spread of the human population.

 

Adding further alarm to the threat of these and other emerging

infectious diseases is the growing number of drug-resistant pathogens

evolving.

 

Researchers also stress that billions of dollars are being spent in

affluent areas of the North to quell what has so far been considered

random epidemics. Evidence from the mapping project indicates the

entire global community will be safer if more effort was made

establishing preventive measures where humans and wildlife are living

in close proximity.