Wild monkeys carrying new deadly EBOLA viruses could spark human PANDEMIC
WILD monkeys carrying new deadly Ebola-style viruses could cause a pandemic in humans unless better monitoring is put in place, scientists warn.
By Lucy Domachowski
DailyStar.co.uk
28th December 2018
Contact with wild monkeys and apes puts humans at risk of contracting new infectious diseases such as the deadly Ebola virus, according to a new study.
More than three-fifths of emerging infectious diseases are now transmitted from animals to humans – with seven in ten of those coming from wild animals.
Animal diseases that infect humans such as Ebola, Lassa, and Marburg, are a major threat to human health, and diseases often spill over to humans from non-human primates.
And there needs to be better monitoring to stop the next epidemic that could become a pandemic.
The finding was made by researchers who surveyed hundreds of people living in communities in south-eastern Cameroon where monkey meat is part of the staple diet.
They found the risk of a village being infected with a disease from monkeys was “directly related to the relative density of non-human primates and their proximity to human settlements”.
Their warning comes after the outbreak of the Ebola virus killed more than 3,000 in West Africa.
The virus is believed to have originated in fruit bats and can also be transmitted to humans via primates.
Lead author Dr Tamara Giles-Vernick of the Institut Pasteur, France, explained: “Animal diseases that infect humans are a major threat to human health.
“Nonhuman primates’ genetic relatedness to human beings makes them an important source of disease spillovers into human populations.
“The central African rainforest has witnessed many infectious spillovers from primates, including multiple neglected tropical diseases.
The Rest…HERE
