Osterhaus ADME †, Kuiken T †
† Institute of Virology, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Recently there has been an abundance of fascinating emerging infectious diseases: avian influenza, phocine distemper, anthrax, smallpox, West Nile fever, Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, and monkeypox. Each of these outbreaks has increased interest in the scientific community, received immense attention from the media, invoked fear in the public, and shifted funding towards investigation and control of these diseases. Many of these events occurred as a direct result of the introduction of viruses into species in which they had not previously been present. A complex mix of social, technological and ecological changes, and the ability of certain viruses to adapt rapidly to a changing environment, seems to be at the basis of this phenomenon. What is becoming increasingly clear is that wild animals are the most likely source of emerging viruses that put at risk the health of human beings, livestock, and (endangered) wildlife. With the example of SARS and avian influenza to force the issue, we should become more proactive in developing surveillance schemes to obtain a more complete world-wide picture of infectious diseases in wildlife, and so provide an early warning system of such threats to human, domestic, and wild animal health.
|
|
|
| Go back | |
| This site is maintained by JaDes |
|