Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harboring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans like Ebola, HIV, and dengue.
But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases like COVID-19, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise—with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections among the well-being of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems.
Is it possible, then, that it was human activity, such as road building, mining, hunting, and logging, that triggered the Ebola epidemics in Mayibout 2 and elsewhere in the 1990s and that is unleashing new terrors today?
You are certainly right in that human activities - e.g. deforestation etc. contribute to the emergence of diseases, in particular viral diseases. Globalization, including internation trade and travel does the rest.
You are certainly right in that human activities - e.g. deforestation etc. contribute to the emergence of diseases, in particular viral diseases. Globalization, including internation trade and travel does the rest.
Yes! Forests help create environmental balance and healthy living conditions.
A number of factors that include deforestation, natural disasters , increase movements of man and others favour the spread of infectious diseases.
I have mentioned several factors in my book on " Zoonoses" that contribute to the spread of zoonotic infections.
Yes! Please see the link below.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10980-020-00995-w.pdf
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