John Camarella

Artifact #9

Most emerging/re-emerging disease have a zoonotic source. For example, the Black Plague is endemic in areas such as Arizona and Colorado where the disease exists naturally in rodents. It usually exists around the desert-like areas but it is still a zoonotic source that infects a small group of people each year. Yet, it was discovered that this strain is the same strain that was strangely effective at reducing the entire population of Europe by a third. It is important to monitor these sources of infection because of the effects that they could have on the United States as well as the world due to the readily available modes of transportation.

In areas that are not modern, like much of Africa, lots of diseases are still present within the animal populations. Since most food cannot be found in a grocery store, villagers and tribes will go out hunting. For example, HIV came from monkeys that were in the wild within Africa. It is believed that the disease first infected humans due to the consumption of the animals for survival. Another aspect of the hunting is coming across a carcass that has yet to be touched by animals. This is called bush-meat and is eaten by the villages due to the need to find food. Lots of times these animals died for a reason and disease is high on this list allowing for deadly diseases that are endemic within the animal population to transition to the human population yielding a disease that has never been seen before. In HIV’s case, it swept through the world at an astonishing state and is still incurable today.