Cadet Matthew Saunders

Spill Over Video

4/11/17

HR:None

Spillover (Zika and Ebola)

Zika and Ebola are both diseases spread from animals too humans and then once it is in a human can spread from human to human rapidly. There are several ways that diseases can be exposed to humans this process is called zoonosis. One thing is for certain, there are more people on earth then there were many years ago so we continue to industrialize forests which leave little room for animals too live. Through land use and urbanization this can become a problem; in many third world countries and countries with different cultures they live very close to wild animals. Being around these animals opens the door for diseases to spread, through feces especially. An example of urbanization would be the fruit bats that carry Ebola living in the trees of city parks and inhabiting the area very close to humans. It only takes one person to come into contact with the disease that the bat is carrying and then if it not properly taken care of it can spread rapidly. Climate change is another factor that plays into zoonosis and climate in general can put some areas at a higher risk than others. For example tropical climates run into heavy mosquito populations which also mean a higher chance of getting Zika. A solution to this which is being done now which is fascinating is the use of a GMO. I don’t like the idea of it but in this case it’s really clever I think. The males are released to mate with females and their offspring will die right after hatching. This is okay because the risk to humans is minimal and if for some reason you need the mosquitos back just stop letting males out into wild and they should naturally come back. The public health risk of these diseases is the mortality of them. Nearly nine out of ten die from the disease. It is also rather fascinating that animals can carry the disease and not be affected by them but if humans contract it from them then we can die. An example of this is monkeys can carry herpes which is different from human herpes but if we contract the monkey version then it will kill us where as the human version is rather tame comparatively speaking.