Zoonotic Day: Learn from Past Mistakes and Prepare for a Healthy Future | Weather Channel-Weather Channel Articles

The world considers July 6 to be the day of zoonotic diseases commemorating the successful administration of the first rabies vaccine by Louis Pasteur in 1885. It provides an opportunity to think about the broken relationship between humans and the wild.

Lessons from COVID-19

Until recently, experts believed that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was related to the South China market in Wuhan, China. Studies have shown that the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 may have jumped from pangolins and bats to humans, leading to zoonotic disease. However, recent evidence indicates that the earliest strains may already have greater indications for human infection, suggesting a much earlier infection than previously thought. I have.

While these new developments do not rule out the possibility of COVID-19 having a zoonotic origin, they do not conclude the current theory of its origin. In any case, it should be noted that how we interact with non-human life is an important determinant of the health of not only humans but also other species and their habitats.

Estimates suggest that two-thirds of the newly emerging pathogens come from zoonotic diseases. Increasing crossing of human-animal boundaries is said to be the main driving force. Studies suggest that human intervention leads to destabilization of ecological balance and that increased environmental degradation is a major cause of such pathogenic diversification and the emergence of new diseases.

Zoonotic diseases are often more common in densely populated and high-income, intensive development projects. Predictions indicate that multiple such infectious agents are dormant in humans and animals, awaiting clinical detection or final outbreak.

Response to outbreak

Animal cruelty in livestock, livestock, wildlife trade, and other harmful interactions between humans and animals has often been identified as the cause of multiple zoonotic diseases. Often, such spreads lead to widespread killing of the animals involved, rather than ethical practices for controlling development. Recently, people have been seen chopping trees to destroy bat habitats because they were considered the cause of the coronavirus pandemic. Similar extermination attempts against poultry and pigs were seen after the spread of bird flu and swine flu, respectively.

In May of this year, the United Nations launched an expert panel to advise four international organizations. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). World Organization for Animal Health (OIE); United Nations Environment Program (UNEP); and World Health Organization (WHO). The panel is based on a “one-health” approach that recognizes the connections between humans, animals and the environment and strives for the well-being of all, with suggestions for potential outbreaks. Their current radar includes the design of a long-term global program to avoid further outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza, MERS, Ebola, deer, and perhaps COVID-19.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is also actively accumulating resources through podcasts, workshops, and prioritization reports to promote awareness of zoonotic diseases in different countries. In the process, legal wildlife trading policies have been upgraded to minimize the risk of handlers being infected with unknown pathogens. The scientific community is analyzing trends associated with these diseases through simulation and modeling research.

While dealing with the most prevalent pandemic in human history, the world is gradually preparing to fight the next. The Day of Zoonotic Diseases is here to remind us that our actions have consequences. Therefore, the health of the ecosystem is as important as the health of humans and single species.

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