Pandemics - sa product of human practice

While most of the world has already denounced COVID-19 to be the worst pandemic we have dealt with so far, let's delve into the past to see if there has been a pattern in which they appear, and how forest & wildlife encroachment get us more vulnerable to these catastrophic pandemics.

Sujauddin Darbar

Recent years of scientific studies have evidently proved that there's an unmediated link between the exploitation of nature and its detrimental effects on human lives. As the world is trying to scram away from the torments of the Covid-19 pandemic, it's only a matter of time until we run into a new

undiscovered set of diseases. As Dennis Carroll quotes in his docuseries on Netflix by the name of 'Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak',' "When we talk about another flu pandemic happening, it's not a matter of 'if' but 'when.'"

Although Covid-19 has already caused innumerable damage, and has put the entire world on an abrupt standstill, it is only an iota of what The Black Death perpetrated in the 13th century. Also known as the Bubonic Plague, it wiped out almost a third of Europe's population. Unsurprisingly, the pious populace of the Medieval times impulsively claimed it to be God's punishment. It was only until the 18th century, when the human kind finally started understanding the cause of it. Today, scientists understand that the disease is transmitted by bites from fleas infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is most prevalent in wild rodents, but humans can also get infected from flea bites. Besides, according to researchers in

Kenya, the rodents in agricultural areas are nearly twice as likely to test positive for plague as those tested in conserved forest sites. By changing the vegetation cover of the Earth's landscapes by clearing forests for agriculture, the medieval people made themselves a lot more susceptible to the plague.

Since the latter of the 20th century, Malaria has become infamous for being the largest killer of children, Unicef claims that Malaria kills one child every second. World Health Organisation defines Malaria as "a life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium Parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites infected by female Anopheles mosquitoes." But what's interesting is that a report by National Geography claims that deforestation acts as a catalyst in the widespread of Malaria. The same report suggests that a 10 per cent increase in deforestation leads to a 3.3 per cent increase in malaria incidence. Deforestation increases the incidents of malaria because it creates several favourable conditions for the Anopheles mosquitoes to breed, which gives them more room to proliferate. These mosquitoes being the super-spreaders, traverse across vast lands to infect millions of people with Malaria. "Human Immunodeficiency Virus also continues to be a global health issue, it has so far claimed 32 million lives," says World Health Organisation. HIV, just like most of the other diseases, is also a result of the intervention of the natural habitat of animals. An international team of researchers from the University of Alabama, led by Dr Beatrice Hahn, traced the roots of HIV-1 to a virus found in a subspecies of chimpanzee. The disease was passed on when human hunters killed the Chimpanzees and caught the virus after eating them or having contact with their blood. Furthermore, by destroying primate habitats, those responsible for forest clearance caused HIV to take up residence in humans. HIV spread to humans when deforestation decimated ape and monkey populations, causing the HIV virus to adopt humans as an abundant alternative host.

The origin of Covid-19 is still obfuscated with different controversial theories involving politics and bio-war. But according to Wired.uk, "The disease appears to have originated from a Wuhan seafood market where wild animals, including marmots, birds, rabbits, bats and snakes, are traded illegally. Although the hunt for the animal source of Covid-19 is still unknown." As the dust clears, the humankind will soon find the true origins of Covid-19. Regardless of what it is, history has taught us that forest encroachment always goes hand-inglove with the discovery of new diseases.

The truth is that Chimpanzees, Rodents, Bats & Mosquitos are not the only animals that have caused pandemics. According to researchers, 60 per cent of new infectious diseases that emerge in people including Ebola, Nipah, Coronavirus et cetra are transmitted by a range of other animals. Besides this, in a 2015 study, researchers at Ecohealth Alliance said,"nearly one in three outbreaks of new and emerging disease[s] are linked to land-use change like deforestation,"

Many viruses exist harmlessly with their host animals in forests, because the animals have coevolved with them. But humans can become unwitting hosts for pathogens when they venture into or change forest habitat.

Pandemics is not a natural phenomenon, it is made by humans. According to Source Book of Medical History, "The earliest recorded pandemics have rooted back to 430 BC, starting from Athens." The occurring of these pandemics have been ebb & flow ever since human kind started exploiting nature for its own advantage. It's time that world plays its 'wise' card by learning from the past and putting an end to exploitation of nature. Otherwise, nature always has a way to fight back, and when it does, it costs us a fortune.