Zoonotic and Emerging Diseases

 

When humans settled down, ended their traveling lifestyle and started civilizations, diseases have been a constant threat and source of death. Many times have countries been nearly destroyed by a pathogen that could not be stopped at the cost of millions of lives. In recent history, great advances in technology have allowed us to study different pathogens and the diseases they cause allowing us to create medical technology that has nearly eliminated diseases that previously were uncontrollable. However, there are still diseases that have emerged or re-emerged that have the potential to kill millions more. Researching and understanding these diseases is of the greatest importance.

Three viruses, Ebola, Zika and Nipah, are each zoonotic pathogens that exemplify how important emerging and re-emerging diseases are. The Ebola virus was discovered in 1976 and causes one of the deadliest diseases with a mortality rate of 90%. There were two initial outbreaks of the disease when it was discovered in 1976 and another more recent outbreak in 2014. As of 2016 there have been around 13,000 known deaths from all of the Ebola outbreaks. One of the aspects of this disease is that a person can go weeks without feeling any symptoms while spreading the disease. The disease is spread from person to person via body fluids and likely originated in fruit bats. This type of transmission is more likely to be dangerous for people living in less developed countries that do not have a proper sewage system (CDC). New diseases like Ebola are important to treat quickly because of their ability to kill many people.

The Zika virus is another zoonotic pathogen that is important because of how it has changed throughout the years and for its form of zoonosis. What is special about this virus is how sporadic and different each outbreak is. The virus was first discovered in 1947 in monkeys and was thought to not have any effect on humans. In 1952, the first case of Zika in humans was discovered. Then the virus was dormant until 2007 when it was detected on the Island of Yap and was now causing babies to be born with microcephaly (WHO). In 2013, as many as 30,000 people were infected. The virus is spread via mosquitos, sex, from mother to child and more (CDC). What is scary about it, is that if a mother is infected by it, she wouldn’t know until her baby is born with a deformed head. This virus is also another example of a pathogen that is easily spread by mosquitos. Mosquitoes are also terrifying because of how many there are and how easy it is for them to fly from person to person spreading disease. Zika is an example of a disease that changes and is spread easily via mosquitos.

Finally, the Nipah virus is yet another pathogen that shows why zoonotic diseases are important. Bats serve as a reservoir for the virus and spread it to pigs and humans. Pig farmers in Malaysia began showing cases of encephalitis and respiratory illnesses in 1999 when Nipah was first identified. This is an example of zoonosis that shows how diseases can spread from animals to humans. The result of the outbreak in 1999 was a mortality rate of 33% and the euthanizing of one million pigs. The virus also has an annual outbreak in Bangladesh (CDC). Animals are capable of spreading diseases to humans that can have drastic consequences for all animals involved.

Ebola, Zika and Nipah all show why zoonotic as well as emerging/re-emerging diseases are important. Zoonotic diseases are diseases that spread from animals to humans and are capable of killing and spreading to many people. Ebola and Nipah are both very deadly diseases that have luckily been contained. The Zika virus serves as an example and a warning to humans that diseases can re-emerge in different forms and become much more infective than before. Hopefully, we will be able to contain any future disease and prevent them from becoming epidemics.

One of the most frustrating outbreaks that is currently going on is the measles outbreak in the Western United States. Measles is a highly transmissible disease that has been around for over 1,000 years. In the U.S. in the early 1900’s there were around 6,000 deaths due to measles each year. When a vaccine for the disease was finally developed, 75% of people contracted the disease by the time they were 15 years old. This disease has a very deadly history (CDC). However, vaccines for the disease were able to eliminate it from the United States in 2000. Tragically, just before that, a now retracted research article claimed that vaccines lead to the development of autism. Public opinion has kept this falsehood alive and there is now a large antivaccination movement that has allowed for measles to re-emerge in the United States. There is a current mistrust of science that could potentially lead to the return of the old measles death rate if more people choose not to vaccinate their child.

Outbreak Culture is the lack of response to disease outbreaks. The most recent Ebola outbreak is seen as a failure to control the spread of the disease. Rapidly spreading diseases are important to understand and to understand them, the origin of the outbreak needs to be identified. To do this, everyone who contracts the disease needs to be questioned about who they came into contact with and investigators need to find everyone who could have come into contact with someone with the disease. This kind of investigation follows the spread of the disease all the way back to the original person who contracted and spread the disease. This process is known as tracing and it allows researchers to find patterns in the spread of the disease. For example, if everyone who drinks from a certain well gets sick, that well might then be the source of the disease. This tactic is important for learning about and creating a vaccine for a disease.

To be effective at preventing a new pandemic, we need to be knowledgeable, prepared and able to respond to new outbreaks. Due to the current mistrust of vaccines in the U.S., it is imperative to overcome this sentiment and get everyone vaccinated. Vaccination is important because there are people who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons. Each disease has a specific amount of people that need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease and reaching this goal is crucial to saving those unable to be vaccinated. The first step to preventing outbreaks is to spread the knowledge of how vaccines work so people understand how important it is for them to be vaccinated. Being knowledgeable about vaccines is only the first step, after that, we need to be prepared to have enough research to be able to identify possible new threats. The Flu is one disease that needs to be vaccinated against. However, this disease frequently mutates and so each year, a new vaccine needs to be developed. Having the research available to make a new vaccine each year will help in preventing the flue from spreading. Research will also be important once an outbreak occurs. The quicker a new disease can be identified, the quicker a solution to the outbreak can be made. Finally, we need to have the infrastructure and logistical capabilities to identify and handle an outbreak. The CDC publishes guideline that dictates when hospitals need to contact them when they encounter a certain disease. These vigilance programs allow for the constant monitoring of diseases that have the potential to cause an outbreak. There also needs to be proper equipment delivered to Emergency Medical Services so they can properly handle 911 calls for suspicious cases. Hopefully, with all of the plans and preparations in place, no outbreak will harm the U.S.

 

References:

Spillover Movie Watched In Class

CDC Pages for Ebola, Zika and Nipah

WHO Pages for the Zika Virus