Urbanization causes increase in zoonotic diseases

The mushrooming of high-rise condominiums, subdivisions and commercial malls may be signs of economic growth, but this is also causing an increase in zoonotic diseases, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Thursday.

DOH spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy said changes in land use have led to the emergence and re-emergence of zoonotic diseases, or diseases that can be passed between animals and humans.

“You would notice that we are losing our forests and farmlands now. They are being flattened… trees are being uprooted to give way to new structures,” he said on the sidelines of the epidemiology press workshop of the South Asia Field Epidemiology and Technology Network in Tarlac City.

As the space inhabited by humans widens, animals that can be carriers of infectious diseases are also being displaced from their natural habitats.

There is now “closer interactions” between animals and humans due to urbanization, Lee Suy said, citing a World Health Organization finding that 70 percent of diseases globally are zoonotic in nature.

Lee Suy cited severe acute respiratory syndrome, transferred from civet cats, avian influenza ( birds and livestock), Middle East Respiratory SyndromeCorona Virus (camels and bats) and Ebola virus (monkeys and bats), which have become global health concerns.

The other factor that contributes to the increase of zoonotic diseases is migration, with people transporting the virus across the globe.

“This is the situation globally. It’s not only in the Philippines. Everywhere in the world the threat of emerging and reemerging diseases is there,” Lee Suy noted.

Lee Suy, who is also head of the DOH’s Emerging and Re- emerging Diseases Program, said that since urbanization and migration could no longer be stopped, people should go back to the basics to protect themselves.

Personal hygiene and sanitation are the best methods to prevent zoonotic diseases.

“It’s already a big help if you do handwashing regularly and properly, and if you observe the sneezing and coughing etiquettes. That’s actually the good thing here - prevention is easy, but we have to do it,” Lee Suy emphasized.

He underscored the need to see a doctor especially when there are symptoms of zoonotic diseases.