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Zoonotic diseases: Why are infections from animals so dangerous to humans?
Trivia question: Where did the Spanish Flu Epidemic of the early 1900s originate?
If you answered Spain, you would be wrong. It actually originated as a zoonotic disease in rural Kansas that came from pigs and was passed to people. It was a zoonotic disease.
https://www.kcur.org/post/what-1918-flu-pandemic-taught-kansas-city-about-dealing-outbreaks-coronavirus#stream/0
Some researchers say the 1918 flu outbreak, the deadliest pandemic in history, may have started in Kansas. A Haskell County doctor is believed to have first documented the deadly flu strain and it was believed that soldiers from Haskell County transported the disease to Fort Riley. Camp Funston at Fort Riley was particularly hard hit. And then U.S. troops sent from Fort Riley to fight in World War I in Europe may have carried the virus with them and it spread from there.
Eventually, the 1918 pandemic is said to have claimed between 50 million and 100 million lives worldwide, with as much as one-third of the world’s population infected.
Eventually, the 1918 pandemic is said to have claimed between 50 million and 100 million lives worldwide, with as much as one-third of the world’s population infected.
At one time, the US and China did communicate decently when it came the spread of zoonotic diseases such as SARS or the bird flu. Of course, Trump fired Dr. Linda Quick an immunologist who served as a liason between China and the CDC. Of course, this lack of communication may have delayed the U.S response, though Trump would still have been reluctant to raise the alarm about a possible pandemic for fear of spooking the stock market.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/zoonotic-diseases-why-are-infections-from-animals-so-dangerous-to-humans
While it is not yet clear which animals were the source of the new coronavirus — was it bats? Was it pangolins? Was it both? — scientists are sure that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, originated from animals.
The numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the world are staggering. According to Johns Hopkins University, hundreds of thousands of people have contracted the virus and tens of thousands of people have died.
But zoonotic diseases — that is, diseases acquired from animals — were affecting vast numbers of people across the world before COVID-19 took center stage.
An international report from 2012, for example, informed that a total of 56 such diseases were responsible for 2.5 billion cases of illness and 2.7 million deaths across the globe each year. These illnesses included rabies, toxoplasmosis, Q fever, Dengue fever, avian influenza, Ebola, and anthrax.
The numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the world are staggering. According to Johns Hopkins University, hundreds of thousands of people have contracted the virus and tens of thousands of people have died.
But zoonotic diseases — that is, diseases acquired from animals — were affecting vast numbers of people across the world before COVID-19 took center stage.
An international report from 2012, for example, informed that a total of 56 such diseases were responsible for 2.5 billion cases of illness and 2.7 million deaths across the globe each year. These illnesses included rabies, toxoplasmosis, Q fever, Dengue fever, avian influenza, Ebola, and anthrax.
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It is truly terrifying and it is going to keep happening now due to global warming. If we dodge this one what about the next one? Nightmare stuff.
