Warning over more animal-to-human disease outbreaks

A hospital staff gets tested for coronavirus in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on August 31, 2020, amid a lockdown in the Palestinian enclave due to increasing cases of COVID-19 infections. (AFP)

• Oxford coronavirus vaccine lead scientist cites ‘greater population density, travel, deforestation’

LONDON: We should expect more animal-to-human virus outbreaks in the future, the lead scientist behind Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine has warned.
“Greater population density, greater travel, deforestation — all of these things make it more likely that these outbreaks will happen and then something will spread,” Prof. Sarah Gilbert told The Independent newspaper.  
“Because of the way things have been going in the world, it’s more likely we’ll have zoonotic infections causing outbreaks in the future.” 
Zoonotic infections are diseases caused by viruses or bacteria that transfer from animals to humans.
COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, is widely believed to have transferred from bats to humans in a food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where it first emerged.
Other zoonotic diseases in recent times include West Nile Disease, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Ebola and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The World Health Organization estimates that around a billion cases of illness and millions of deaths occur every year from zoonotic diseases, and that 60 percent of all infectious diseases in humans come from animals.
The UN’s Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute have, similarly to Gilbert, warned that the transfer of pathogens from animals to humans is driven by the man-made deterioration of the natural environment — through land degradation, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction and climate change.
Oxford University’s vaccine, like a number of others in development globally, is now in the late stages of its development.
Trials of the vaccine, being developed in partnership with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, so far suggest it is safe for humans and induces an immune response.
The vaccine could be available by the end of the year if the trials go smoothly, and AstraZeneca has committed to producing 2 billion doses by next summer should it be approved.
But Gilbert cautioned that at this stage it is “difficult” to establish for how long the Oxford vaccine will provide protection from infection, and what level of immunity it will offer.