Exposing Zoonotic Diseases, silent killer causing over 2.2 million deaths annually

“In every 5 diseases blowing up your health, at least 3 of them dawn from animal sources”, this is according to One Health Global Initiative. Animals do harbor manifold parasites that sometimes do cause diseases to them in return. Human-animal interaction is an unavoidable verity; the parasites are always traversing from the harboring animals to humans in various ways as sited below. The parasites always advance cross cutting upshots during the interactions but often, these parasites become very treacherous and virulent once they enter into humans e.g. in cases like Ebola, Marburg and Rabies that are passively harbored and cause no clear disease threats to gorillas, bats and dogs respectively unlike they do once they infiltrate humans. These diseases bred and spread by or from animals to humans (or vice versa) are scientifically termed as Zoonotic diseases (or zoonoses). “Zoonotic diseases account for the 2.2 million deaths each year worldwide with most of the deaths occurring in low and middle income countries in Africa, Asia and South America’s Brazil.” this was according to a study release entitled “Mapping of poverty and Likely Zoonoses” by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). 

Zoonotic diseases have profound collective impact in debilitating the health and productivity more notably in rural communities of developing countries. “Targeting the diseases in the hardest hit countries is crucial to protecting global health as well as reducing severe levels of poverty and illness among the world.”, Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with the ILRI in Kenya, Africa.

In Uganda, the most outrageous and notorious zoonoses are; brucellosis from milk, bovine/cow TB, Cysticercosis, Rabies, Trypanosomiasis, Ebola, Marburg, Malaria etc. however, most of them fall under neglected diseases that receive little to no attention and funding from the public health unit of the country. 

According to Dr. Monica Monsenero an Epidemiologist at African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) in Uganda, “most zoonoses fall in a gap between public health and animal health. For instance rabies, brucellosis and bovine TB kill a number of Ugandans annually but there is no clear data as no one is paying sober attention to them. Huge economic implications associated with building diagnostic and control means often leave most developing intentionally unbothered. Finally the gap between most disciplines, for instance, the veterinary and medical professionals are trained separately and they each work separately with little to no interaction between them, this complicates the whole desired steps for appropriate response to zoonotic diseases especially in Africa.”

Exclusive of dwellers neighboring park locales that often burgeon in poaching and feasting on game meat, most human infections with zoonoses come from;

1)      Livestock, including pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep and goats.

2)      Pets and rodents like dog, cat and mouse are also inclusive as zoonotic agents.

3)       Vectors like mosquito, tsetse fly, tick, kissing bug and bed bug

Humans contract these zoonoses through:

·         Interaction with fluids from the infected animal (blood, urine, saliva and feces)

·         Eating and drinking products from infected animals (e.g. undercooked meat, game meat,  unpasteurized milk, unwashed fruits/fruits bit by bats, vegetable grown and infected by animal faeces and urine)

·         Being bitten by an infected dog/pet, or vectors like mosquito, tsetse fly, tick or bed bug

These zoonotic diseases include Influenza (commonly known as flu) with a major epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killing over 50 million people. Influenza is a viral disease commonly carried by pigs (swine flu) and chickens (bird flu). In Uganda, a clear occurrence was 2015 swine flu outbreak in southern district of Rakai.  Bubonic plague epidemic in the 1300s that eroded humanity piling corpses from the European streets to deep villages of South Africa, and it is estimated that 75 million lives were lost in the aggressive hand of this plague. Bubonic plague is a disease caused by Yesinia pestis, a parasite carried rodents including cats and transmitted by fleas. In Uganda, the disease is prevalent in northwestern districts of Nebbi and Arua with major outbreak reported in 2011. Rabies kills around 55,000 people globally each year, with most deaths occurring in Asia and Africa. Rabies is caused by a virus often carried by dogs and other wild animals.

In lines with vectors, mosquito is the top culprit causing over 400 million people globally each year, the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 1.2 million people die each year from malaria with children making bulk of the victims. Mosquito also transmit other ailments like Zika virus (a massive burden in South America today), yellow fever, Q-fever and dengue fever during their bites. Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) is transmitted by tsetse fly; however, it is being put under control. Chagas disease is transmitted by triatomes and bed bugs through their feces and bites.

Today, over 35 million people are living with HIV/AIDS globally. HIV is thought to have originated from chimpanzees and other primates in Africa forests. Ebola originated from chimpanzees and gorillas, thousands of lives have been lost in major outbreaks occurring in Africa. “28,637 cases and 11,315 deaths have been reported worldwide” WHO. Marburg virus disease was first identified in 1967 in Germany from infected monkeys imported from Uganda. Both the highly virulent Ebola and Marburg viruses are also carried by bats that always bite fruits eaten by humans and they live in close proximity to humans especially in Africa.