Spillover!
As civilization continues to expand and develop into new environments the animal kingdom fights back. Cutting down forests and encroaching on natural habits cause shifts in the balance of nature. Animals carry many diseases; when humans come in close proximity with animals, animal viruses have the ability to mutate and jump from a zoonotic disease to a human disease. Up to 80% of all diseases originate as a zoonotic disease; this should be a significant wake up call to society. Unfortunately it’s not, humans continue to ignore the signs and news diseases like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zikia, Lyme disease, and many more. Many lawmakers and development agencies will not accept that these cases of disease are caused by moving into wild areas and that these diseases can and will adapt to infect more.
Globalization has made the world smaller; humans now have the ability to be anywhere in the world within a day. While this is a tremendous achievement for mankind, we are leaving ourselves susceptible. People can travel faster, this means so can their germs. In wild areas of the world where cities are growing and modernizing like countries in Africa, old traditions mixed with larger populations create a powder keg for a outbreak. Eating bushmeat, tree sap, and having contact with wild animals spawn zoonotic disease outbreaks. Local villagers in the past would die in their village of disease derived from animals, now when the visit the city they pass it to many hosts.
This poses a huge public health risk. Many diseases can be transmittable before the host shows symptoms of illness. A long incubation period can add to the danger of this. The only way to prevent a major pandemic is to start respecting nature because nature will find a way to fight back. This means taking precautions with contact with animals and entering new environments. The CDC does their best to track and monitor all cases and potential outbreaks but lawmakers need to be on board to help prevent the next pandemic.