Covid, Bird Flu, Mpox - a Virologist On Why We're Seeing So Many Viruses Emerge TC_Africa: EquatorialGuinea
forced animals into new areas in search of food sources. Different species that wouldn't usually have been in contact were now sharing the same environment. Add humans into this equation and you have the perfect recipe for a new virus to emerge., creating an ideal environment for viruses to spread. The rapid development of towns and cities often outpaces adequate infrastructure such as sanitation and healthcare, further increasing the likelihood of virus outbreaks..
We've known about these factors for a long time. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 did not surprise any virologist or epidemiologist. It was a matter of when - not if - a pandemic would occur. What was unexpected has been the scale of the COVID pandemic, and the difficulty of effectively limiting the spread of the virus.
We also couldn't have predicted the impact that misinformation would have on other areas of public health.
When a person is infected with a virus, some of the genetic material of that virus is usually flushed down the loo. Wastewater has the power to show if the number of infections in an area is increasing, usually before case numbers start to increase in hospitals. Adapting this technology to look for other viruses such as influenza, measles or even polio could provide us with valuable data on the timing of virus outbreaks. This is already happening to some degree -Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
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