What is a zoonotic disease?,
Diseases that spread from animals to humans are called zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic
diseases are the diseases that can be transmitted from animals to people, a disease that
normally exist in animals, but that can infect humans.
Do we need to worry about the diseases that spread from animals to human?
Absolutely.
Do we need to be worried about them?
Yes.
You will be surprised to know that 60% of all human diseases are caused by zoonotic
diseases and 75% of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic.
How many viruses are there in this world?
There are innumerable numbers of types of viruses, but only about 9000 have been
identified by their genomes and included in the definitive reference data base.
New viruses are being discovered all the time. More than 2500 new viruses have been
found by scanning DNA recovered from human and animal cells.
Are all viruses dangerous?
Not at all. Human body is “soup of life forms” of different kinds. Most of the bacteria
and viruses live in harmony inside our body. Only a few makes us sick.
” Peculiar fact is that it is not in virus’s interest to kill human, as it no longer
could live, multiply and spread in a dead human being “
Viruses are like Zombies. Viruses are really like Egyptian mummies in the movie “The
Mummy “.They are very much lifeless until it gets into another life form. Inside a life
form(an animal, including human) reincarnation takes place and that is the first step
towards carnage, that follows.
The diseases that jump from animals to humans are mostly known to be dangerous. Why is
it so?
Most viruses and bacteria that infect other organisms are completely harmless to people,
but a tiny proportion can infect and those are called zoonotic diseases. The Corona
virus is no exception.
These animal born diseases ( zoonotic diseases) can be so dangerous because we have no
ready made immunity against them. Zoonotic diseases are quite a few and pose different
degrees of danger to human. For example rabies is almost 100% fatal.
” Rabies is mostly passed on by dog bites, but kills 60,000 people a year “
Others, such as Ebola, can spread from person to person, but aren’t very good at it and
so cause relatively small outbreaks. Nevertheless they are extremely dangerous .
