[afro-nets] Emerging diseases require a global solution

[Leela McCullough <leela@healthnet.org>]

Emerging diseases require a global solution
-------------------------------------------

17 June 2005
Wildlife Conservation Society
http://www.wcs.org

The threat of potential pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, and avian
influenza demands a more holistic approach to disease control,
one that prevents diseases from crossing the divide between hu-
mans, their livestock, and wildlife, according to the Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS) in the most recent issue of the jour-
nal Foreign Affairs. This "One World, One Health" concept, as
described by WCS veterinary staff, calls for the integration of
efforts to deal proactively with disease threats to human and
animal health before they reach crisis levels.

"As of yet, no single agency or organization focuses on the myr-
iad diseases that move across the interface between people,
their domestic animals and wildlife," said Dr. William Karesh,
one of the co-authors of "One World, One Health" and the direc-
tor of WCS' Field Veterinary Program. "There is only 'one
health,' and future programs must factor in the complexity of
how emerging diseases move among humans and other species."

The paper--titled "The Human-Animal Link"--is one of several in
the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs focusing on pandemic
diseases.

Karesh and co-author Dr. Bob Cook - WCS vice president and chief
veterinarian of the society's Wildlife Health Center - developed
the "One World, One Health" concept in response to the increased
vulnerability of humanity and animals to a host of diseases that
are capable of adapting to other species and moving across the
globe through the rapid transportation of goods and people. Many
of these diseases can move back and forth between species, mu-
tating into more virulent, resistant forms. Over 60 percent of
the 1,415 infectious diseases currently known to modern medicine
are capable of infecting both humans and animals. Most of these
diseases originated in animals and now infect people.

On the local level, the communities that rely on wildlife for
their protein are vulnerable to pathogens from the forest. The
AIDS virus may have entered human communities through the con-
sumption of non-human primates with a similar virus that mu-
tated. In Central Africa, many subsistence hunters will take ad-
vantage of animal carcasses for protein, often infecting them-
selves and their families with deadly diseases in the process.
Each human outbreak of Ebola in Central Africa during the late
1990's and the first years of this century can be traced to hu-
mans handling infected apes. Estimates for the amount of wild,
or "bush" meat consumed in Central Africa is over a billion
kilograms a year, translating to an estimated 580 million indi-
vidual animals alone. People in the Amazon basin consume between
67 and 164 million kilograms of wild meat a year, between 6.4
million and 15.8 million individual mammals.

On the global level, one of the biggest challenges to health or-
ganizations and agencies is the worldwide trade in wildlife. Ac-
cording to a variety of sources compiled by WCS, the annual
global trade in live wild animals includes roughly 40,000 pri-
mates, 4 million birds, and 640,000 reptiles. These species and
the diseases they carry are brought together into trading cen-
ters before being sold locally, or shipped to other regions of
the world. Avian influenza--currently feared as one of the most
likely candidates for a pandemic--was detected in two mountain
eagles that were smuggled into Belgium to Thailand in carry-on
baggage. Livestock movement can introduce diseases also. Tuber-
culosis--a disease afflicting domesticated cattle and humans--
has now spread across continents, infecting wild bison in Can-
ada, deer in Michigan, and Cape buffalo in South Africa.

The costs of reacting to these problems, say Karesh and Cook,
are staggering. The rash of livestock pathogens that have spread
around the world in the last decade--a list including mad cow
disease, foot and mouth disease, avian flu, swine fever) have
caused some $100 billion in losses. The recent outbreaks of SARS
have cost the global community half that amount.

To address these problems, Karesh and Cook call for a number of
steps to integrate human and animal disease prevention efforts
in a coordinated manner. Recommendations include better surveil-
lance of wildlife diseases to prevent outbreaks before they oc-
cur, shifting the cost of preventing and controlling outbreaks
to animal traders, encouraging governments to improve the regu-
lation of the animal trade and breaking down barriers among
health disciplines.

"Diseases that afflict people, livestock and wildlife have se-
vere economic and social consequences for all regions of the
world," said Dr. Bob Cook. "Failing to implement a cross-
species, planet wide approach to these emerging health issues
will cost more than we can afford. The 'One Health' paradigm can
serve as an 'ounce of prevention' for the 21st Century."

Contact: John Delaney
Wildlife Conservation Society
Tel.: +1-718-220-3275
mailto:jdelaney@wcs.org
http://www.wcs.org



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Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

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