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Scientists Fear Increase in Animal Diseases Jumping to Humans
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Scientists Fear Increase in Animal Diseases Jumping to Humans March 23 (Bloomberg) --
Animals have become the leading source of new human disease, and fighting them will take more trained professionals and resources, health officials said at a meeting in Atlanta this week.
The warning resonated with health officials at a four-day infectious disease conference who say they increasingly find themselves battling diseases originating in animals. The newly- emerging diseases include such global public health threats as AIDS, SARS, and bird flu, as well as the little-known chikungunya, a virus originating in monkeys that is causing headaches and fever in East Africa and India.
World leaders at a January meeting in Beijing pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu. Veterinarians and animal health experts need even more resources to prevent the spread of the illness among birds and people, said Bernard Vallat, Director- General of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, in a March 21 interview.
Animal diseases are ``a permanent threat for the planet,'' Vallat said. ``It's now a common fight for public health and animal health.''
While it has been known throughout history that many human ailments originate in animals, scientists at the infectious disease conference said there is growing pressure from government health officials for research that will allow them to quickly identify dangerous illnesses while they still reside in animals in order to prevent them from jumping to humans.
`Attention to Animals'
``I've never seen as much attention to animals as I see right now,'' said Michael Woodford, 82, a retired veterinarian living in Portugal who attended the conference as a member of a working group on wildlife disease.
``Maybe it's because we've been hit with one disease after another after another -- HIV and SARS and mad cow,'' Woodford said in an interview yesterday. ``But the emphasis is changing. It really is. And the bird flu scare seems to be the tipping point. It has the potential to change our lives in a big way.''
The problem, said Vallat, of the animal health organization, is that poor nations where dangerous animal diseases exist have few dollars for public health services, and even fewer for veterinary treatment and animal disease surveillance. Only about 30 countries that are members of his organization have the resources and systems to respond quickly to outbreaks of disease in animals, he said.
``That means 140 more or less need support,'' Vallat said, adding that animal health officials also need money to compensate farmers when their poultry are destroyed to stop transmission of bird flu.
Animal Disease Conference
Vallat spoke at the fifth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, which ended yesterday. An international conference on animal diseases will begin today in Atlanta.
Three-quarters of all new human diseases in the past three decades and 80 percent of microbes considered among the most dangerous possible bioterrorist weapons originated in animals, said Lonnie King, acting director of a new U.S. research office for studying diseases that pass from animals to people.
The new center is one of four being created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of a reorganization of its current National Center for Infectious Disease. The new Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, Enteric Diseases, which will be based in Atlanta, is expected to begin work within weeks.
CDC is also expanding its veterinary program by training 13 veterinarians in its two-year Epidemic Intelligence Service program, a record number. The public health agency held a first- ever open house for veterinary students in January, and is building new animal and insect facilities at its Fort Collins, Colorado site.
Study Funds Needed
Still, researchers often have difficulty getting money to study how diseases like SARS and West Nile virus infect and travel through animals, King said. Two recent reports from government advisers at the National Academy of Sciences have called more funding.
``From SARS, to West Nile virus, to avian influenza, we're living in a new era of emerging diseases and the bulk are zoonotic,'' or animal-based, King said. ``We speak of this time as the convergence of animal and human health.''
New biological threats are constantly being identified in animals that may spread to humans, researchers said at the conference this week. For instance, one study presented at the conference identified previously unknown viruses, possibly related to HIV, that are infecting Africans who consume ``bush meat,'' or monkeys.
Chikungunya
Researchers are also studying outbreaks of chikungunya in Kenya, the Comoros, Seychelles, and other areas in East Africa, said Roger Nasci, a CDC researcher who studies insect-borne germs. The disease, which has infected hundreds of thousands of people in that region, may also be resurging in India, researchers from that country's National Institute of Virology said.
The bird flu virus, which has infected 184 people and killed 103 of them, is just one in a series of animal diseases worrisome to humans, said Keiji Fukuda, head of the World Health Organization's global influenza program.
HIV, the AIDS virus that has killed millions, and the Ebola virus that causes bleeding both vaulted from monkeys to people; butchers caught Nipah virus, which causes lethal brain infections, while slaughtering infected pigs; and West Nile virus swept over the U.S. on the wings of infected birds.
Attention to animal diseases is ``a critical change in the way we're looking at things,'' Fukuda said in an interview. ``It's clear that we have to understand them better and address them better.''
To contact the reporters on this story:John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.
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Scientists Fear Increase in Animal Diseases Jumping to Humans March 23 (Bloomberg) --
Animals have become the leading source of new human disease, and fighting them will take more trained professionals and resources, health officials said at a meeting in Atlanta this week.
The warning resonated with health officials at a four-day infectious disease conference who say they increasingly find themselves battling diseases originating in animals. The newly- emerging diseases include such global public health threats as AIDS, SARS, and bird flu, as well as the little-known chikungunya, a virus originating in monkeys that is causing headaches and fever in East Africa and India.
World leaders at a January meeting in Beijing pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu. Veterinarians and animal health experts need even more resources to prevent the spread of the illness among birds and people, said Bernard Vallat, Director- General of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, in a March 21 interview.
Animal diseases are ``a permanent threat for the planet,'' Vallat said. ``It's now a common fight for public health and animal health.''
While it has been known throughout history that many human ailments originate in animals, scientists at the infectious disease conference said there is growing pressure from government health officials for research that will allow them to quickly identify dangerous illnesses while they still reside in animals in order to prevent them from jumping to humans.
`Attention to Animals'
``I've never seen as much attention to animals as I see right now,'' said Michael Woodford, 82, a retired veterinarian living in Portugal who attended the conference as a member of a working group on wildlife disease.
``Maybe it's because we've been hit with one disease after another after another -- HIV and SARS and mad cow,'' Woodford said in an interview yesterday. ``But the emphasis is changing. It really is. And the bird flu scare seems to be the tipping point. It has the potential to change our lives in a big way.''
The problem, said Vallat, of the animal health organization, is that poor nations where dangerous animal diseases exist have few dollars for public health services, and even fewer for veterinary treatment and animal disease surveillance. Only about 30 countries that are members of his organization have the resources and systems to respond quickly to outbreaks of disease in animals, he said.
``That means 140 more or less need support,'' Vallat said, adding that animal health officials also need money to compensate farmers when their poultry are destroyed to stop transmission of bird flu.
Animal Disease Conference
Vallat spoke at the fifth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, which ended yesterday. An international conference on animal diseases will begin today in Atlanta.
Three-quarters of all new human diseases in the past three decades and 80 percent of microbes considered among the most dangerous possible bioterrorist weapons originated in animals, said Lonnie King, acting director of a new U.S. research office for studying diseases that pass from animals to people.
The new center is one of four being created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of a reorganization of its current National Center for Infectious Disease. The new Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, Enteric Diseases, which will be based in Atlanta, is expected to begin work within weeks.
CDC is also expanding its veterinary program by training 13 veterinarians in its two-year Epidemic Intelligence Service program, a record number. The public health agency held a first- ever open house for veterinary students in January, and is building new animal and insect facilities at its Fort Collins, Colorado site.
Study Funds Needed
Still, researchers often have difficulty getting money to study how diseases like SARS and West Nile virus infect and travel through animals, King said. Two recent reports from government advisers at the National Academy of Sciences have called more funding.
``From SARS, to West Nile virus, to avian influenza, we're living in a new era of emerging diseases and the bulk are zoonotic,'' or animal-based, King said. ``We speak of this time as the convergence of animal and human health.''
New biological threats are constantly being identified in animals that may spread to humans, researchers said at the conference this week. For instance, one study presented at the conference identified previously unknown viruses, possibly related to HIV, that are infecting Africans who consume ``bush meat,'' or monkeys.
Chikungunya
Researchers are also studying outbreaks of chikungunya in Kenya, the Comoros, Seychelles, and other areas in East Africa, said Roger Nasci, a CDC researcher who studies insect-borne germs. The disease, which has infected hundreds of thousands of people in that region, may also be resurging in India, researchers from that country's National Institute of Virology said.
The bird flu virus, which has infected 184 people and killed 103 of them, is just one in a series of animal diseases worrisome to humans, said Keiji Fukuda, head of the World Health Organization's global influenza program.
HIV, the AIDS virus that has killed millions, and the Ebola virus that causes bleeding both vaulted from monkeys to people; butchers caught Nipah virus, which causes lethal brain infections, while slaughtering infected pigs; and West Nile virus swept over the U.S. on the wings of infected birds.
Attention to animal diseases is ``a critical change in the way we're looking at things,'' Fukuda said in an interview. ``It's clear that we have to understand them better and address them better.''
To contact the reporters on this story:John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.
</PRE>
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