The Global Virome Project, an organization that aims to better prepare humanity from pandemics revealed that there are an estimated 1.7 million undiscovered viruses in the wild and Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance said that it will become the ‘new normal’ as he warned that around five animal-borne pathogens will infect humans every year.
This is after it has been reported that the spread of the China Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) is possibly due to the massive “bushmeat trade” and encroachment of animals from the wild which pose serious threats of animal viruses being contracted by humans.
Pandemics will be the new normal. Every year, there will be five animal-borne pathogens that might emerge. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance
Scientists further warned that more than 60% of new emerging human infectious diseases are from animals.
Pandemics such as EBOLA, Sars and HIV were linked to bats and primates.
Wildlife traders pushed for bigger incomes capturing rare animals and selling it directly to expensive restaurants.
“People will think it is natural, natural is safe,”Yang Zhanqui, a pathogen biologist at Wuhan University explained.
However, this culture cultivated diseases that “can spread globally in three weeks,”Daszak added.
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