Happy one year anniversary to the worldwide shelter-in-place. Thank you, COVID, for destroying all of our 2020 plans and killing three million people.
We all understand that COVID-19 is ruining our lives, but what we do not know is that COVID is a zoonotic disease, a disease transmitted from animals to humans, usually caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasitic animals. Other infamous examples of zoonotic diseases include AIDS, Ebola, Zika, MERS-Cov, SARS-Cov and West Nile fever--all caused by the hunting of exotic animals and the destruction of ecosystems.
If this pandemic has not made it clear enough, the human abuse of nature warrants a larger place in the national discourse. Environmental degradation (human and climate change) and land use alteration changes the pathogen dynamics of zoonotic diseases, since animals come in closer contact with humans when their habitats are destroyed. Additionally, forms of animal cruelty such as the illegal wildlife trade and exotic animal wet markets are gateways to zoonoses.
Furthermore, most of these disease hotspots are located in the biodiverse regions of underdeveloped and developing nations. In these countries, the native people often hunt wildlife to attain economic resources, which has its risks. HIV or the human immunodeficiency virus, for example, originated from Democratic Republic of the Congo, when the native people killed monkeys for bushmeat. They ate the bushmeat, which transmitted the virus. We must assist these countries with their development by providing them with basic needs such as healthcare, food, water, and education.
While our health system is mainly focused on human health, we must take the health of animals and the environment into consideration by using a One Health system. The One Health system fights health issues using the human-animal-ecosystem interface. We share a complex relationship with animals and nature. We depend on them for our livelihoods, food, and wellbeing. Through this interface we are able to solve zoonotic diseases more holistically. For example, the Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness, has been rising in the northeast and midwest of the United States. European settlements and urbanization have driven away many of the gray wolves in the east coast. You may think that humans will benefit because wolves are dangerous, predatory creatures. However, this interrupts and changes the food web dynamics of the ecosystem, so if the wolves are driven away, there is an increase in deers. Those deers are hosts for vectors such as adult ticks, which can pass Lyme disease to humans.
Organizations to follow:
Health in Harmony (@healthinharmonyngo)
EcoHealth Alliance (@ecohealth_alliance)
One Health Institute at UC Davis (@onehealthinstitute)
