World Zoonoses Day 2021: Here’s all you need to know
Anyone can get sick from a zoonotic disease — a disease that spreads through animals — including healthy people. People with weakened immune systems are at a higher risk and with the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, its significance becomes crucial.
Coronavirus pandemic has been hypothesised to have an initial origin in bats. Bats are also associated with many other zoonoses such as Ebola, Nipah and very rarely rabies, as per UNEP report.
World Zoonoses Day is held every year, on July 6, to commemorate the work of the French biologist Louis Pasteur. He administered the first vaccination against a zoonotic disease in 1865. The day is observed by organising awareness campaigns about the precautions and risks of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, Avian influenza and West Nile virus.
The Zoonoses Day’s significance is crucial given the ongoing COVID19 pandemic as many experts have stated that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for the infection, has not been found to infect human beings ever before.
What is Zoonotic disease?
Zoonotic diseases are diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans. It is caused by a pathogen, such as a bacterium, virus or a parasite, that an animal carries and transmits it to a human being. The transmission can occur when there is contact with the animals, or through consumption of the meat or using animal products. The infected human transmits the infectious virus to others.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a public health agency of the United States, animals play a crucial part in spreading zoonotic diseases, with 75 per cent of new or emerging diseases originating from them.
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The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare today urged citizens to pledge to protect animals and prevent spread of such diseases.
“Zoonotic diseases are diseases that transmit from animals to human beings. Let us pledge to protect our animals to prevent spread of such diseases,” the health ministry tweeted.
Who is at risk?
As per the CDC, anyone can be infected with a zoonotic disease, including healthy people. But some people are more at risk such as under-5 kids, people above 65 years of age, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems.
How to prevent it?
The public health agency suggests washing hands properly with soap and water, wearing protective clothing and spraying repellent to prevent bites from fleas, mosquitoes — are a few measures to prevent contracting the zoonotic diseases.
Launched last year by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on World Zoonoses Day, a new report titled ‘Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission’ warned that further outbreaks will emerge unless governments take measures to prevent zoonotic diseases from infecting the humans.
The report set out a few recommendations to prevent future pandemics. The recommendations include expanding scientific enquiry into zoonoses, regulating and monitoring traditional food markets, incentivising the legal wildlife trade and animal husbandry to adopt zoonotic control measures, and radically transforming food systems.
“Above all, governments, citizens and the private sector need to work together. This is a global challenge that nobody can hide from,” reads the report.