The new health threat across the world is Coronavirus which the WHO has named 2019-NCOV. It’s believed that the virus first spread in Hubei province in China from a market selling wild animals though the specific animal to be blamed has not been detected as yet.
In recent times, 75 to 80 percent diseases are being spread by insects and animals. Last year, the much talked about illness in Bangladesh was Degnue which saw more than 100,000 people get admitted to the hospital. Such a high number of people admitted to the hospital for treatment of one illness is unprecedented.
Other mosquito borne diseases are Chikunguniya and Zica while drinking raw date juice increases the risk of Nipah virus. The source of Nipah is bats and there is no treatment for this. From 2001, seventy percent of those affected by Nipah has died. A few years ago, Ebola spread to several countries and the source is believed to be bats.
MARS or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has come from camels while SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS, has come from bats.
The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has said that in the last 25 years, 35 new diseases have been added to the existing list of illnesses and every eight months a new disease is being created.
Director of National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) Dr Bayezid Khurshid, said: “Diseases spread from animals are known as Zoonotik disease and this is caused when man-animal interaction increases. Man is producing crocodiles and geckos commercially and such actions often result in the rise of zoonotic ailments; the rise of worldwide communication is also a cause.”
Former dean of BSMMU Dr ABM Abdullah, adds: “Once diseases are passed from man to animal, the results can be harmful.”
Assistant professor of virology of Suhrawardy Medical College, Dr Zahidur Rahman, added: “Due to deforestation man animal contact is increasing. Humans often do not have the immunity to fight against virus entering their bodies from animals and then we get an outbreak.”
