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.