Scientists link outbreaks such as Covid-19 to biodiversity loss
NEWDELHI: The rise in zoonotic diseases like the coronavirus disease, or Covid 19 is linked to the loss of biodiversity and forests, public health experts and scientists have said. Zoonotic diseases are those that spread from animals to humans.
There is a consensus among scientists that a rise in zoonotic diseases--nipah, Ebola, Avian Influenza, Zika, Coronavirus to name a few in recent decades – is driven by biodiversity loss and climate change.
In a press briefing held in New York by the Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples on Friday, indigenous leaders said the Covid 19 outbreak was a result of loss of native forests and habitat.
“The coronavirus is now telling the world what we have been saying for thousands of years—that if we do not help protect biodiversity and nature, then we will face this and worse future threats,” said Levi Sucre Romero, a Bribri indigenous person from Costa Rica who is the Coordinator of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests.
Scientific studies have already flagged this link. The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (Similar to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in their report last year said that zoonotic diseases are significant threats to human health, with vector-borne diseases accounting for approximately 17 % of all infectious diseases and causing an estimated 700,000 deaths globally per year.
“Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife, domestic animals, plants or people can be exacerbated by human activities such as land clearing and habitat fragmentation,” the report said. It also highlighted that around 25% of species in the animal and plant groups were under threat, suggesting that around one million species are already confronting extinction.
The World Health Organization
has said there is now evidence of the link between the 2019-ncov and other similar known coronaviruses (COV) circulating in bats, and more specifically those of the Rhinolophus bat sub-species.
But the route of transmission to humans is still unclear. The most likely hypothesis is that an intermediary host animal played a role in the transmission of this disease.
“There is no doubt that zoonotic diseases are on the rise. One of the reasons for their rise, among many others, is that animals are coming in contact with human habitation. Chikungunya, for example, also came through an intermediate host...,” said Dr Shobha Broor, former head of department of microbiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.