What are the risk factors of zoonotic diseases?

As the world grapples with the new coronavirus, which is thought to have spread from bats. Let’s take a look at some of the major zoonotic diseases and their outbreaks:

Bubonic plague

Bubonic plague was the cause of the Black Death that swept through Asia, Europe and Africa in the 14th Century and killed an estimated 50 million people. It took centuries for some societies to recover. Plague is a bacterial disease caused by rodents and cats. The infection in humans is caused by the bite of an infected flea.

HIV AIDS

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, originated from chimps and other primates and is thought to have first infected humans at least a century ago. However, it was first recognised only in 1981. By the end of that year, there were 270 reported cases and 121 deaths. HIV destroys the door to a host of deadly infections. The virus has now mutated to a separate human-only disease. HIV –AIDS is considered a pandemic. Between 1981 and 2018, the disease caused an estimated 32 million deaths worldwide.

SARS

An epidemic of SARS, caused by a train of coronavirus SARS-CoV, affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8,000 cases in 2003, SARS-CoV is thought to have spread from bats, which, in turn, spread to other animals (civet cats) and pethaps first infected humans in southern China in 2002. China is considered a potential zone of the re-emergence of SARS-CoV.

Ebola

The 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The outbreak started in Guinea and then spread to other parts of the continent. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals (such as chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, antelopes or porcupines). Human-to-human transmission happens through direct to indirect contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected people. It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts.

Nipah

Nipah virus (NiV) infection severely affects both animals and humans. The natural host of the virus are fruit bats (Indian flying fox).

It can spread from bats to other animals to people or directly from bat to and between people. Even eating a fruit bitten by an infected bat can transfer Nipah to humans. The disease was first identified in 1998 during an outbreak in Malaysia. Indi has reported three NiV outbreaks in the past. The first two were in West Bengal: Siliguri in 2001 and Nadia in 2007. The third outbreak occurred in Kerala in May 2018.

 

Picture Credit : Google