Since the foremost animal-to-human disease, yellow fever was recognized in 1901, scientists have discovered at least another 200 viruses learned to generate illness in humans. According to research by Mark Woolhouse, professor of contagious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, revived species of viruses are being found at a rate of three to four a year. The majority of them arise from animals. Experts say the increasing number of arising viruses is mainly the outcome of ecological destruction and wildlife patronage.
Humankind confronts an unspecified number of new and potentially deadly viruses occurring from Africa’s tropical rainforests, according to Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who assisted to discover the Ebola virus in 1976 and has been on the frontline of the quest for new pathogens ever since. The identification of Ebola depended on a chain that linked the most isolated parts of Africa’s rainforests to high-tech laboratories in the West. Now, the West must depend on African scientists in the Congo and elsewhere to serve as the guardians to alert against forthcoming illnesses.
“Disease X” may be throbbing out inside any one of these animals, got to the metropolis by poor people helping the fondness of the rich for exotic meals and pets. Once a new virus begins spreading among humans, the effects of a brief encounter at the fringe of a forest or a wet market could be devastating. Covid-19 has indicated that. Ebola has confirmed it. And in most of the scientific journals, there is an inference that there will be more contagions coming as humans persist to eliminate wildlife habitats. It’s not an “IF” it’s a “WHEN”.
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