Proper sanitation and hygiene are the key to the coronavirus worldwide, says FMT news channel in Malaysia. Viral history shows how these pathogens transfer from animals to humans time after time. They spread pervasively, kill tens of millions of people, weaken economies and undermine national security. That’s because human health and animal health are indelibly linked via the natural ecosystem.
60% of New Diseases are Zoonotic Passed from Animals
Zoonotic infectious diseases enter humans after bacteria or viruses jump from animals to them. Moreover, some 60% of new diseases originate in humans this way. The spanish flu, hong kong flu, bird flu, nipah virus swine flu, and ebola all erupted in the past hundred years.
And the medieval black death pandemic killed 37.5% of the people in England according to the Malaysian new channel. Poor hygiene and lack of proper sewage systems contributed to the plague says FMT. It then hopped across to humans from fleas on rats, which were in close contact with people in overcrowded unsanitary conditions.
Proper Sanitation and Hygiene Just As Important with COVID
However, the risks have become greater in the current global political climate, where large groups of refugees are relocating. Because they have few possessions, let alone the resources necessary for proper sanitation and hygiene.
Thus their inadequate living standards – and those of prisoners, squatters and ‘sweat shop’ workers – are ideal breeding grounds for zoonotic pandemics. Furthermore, rapid urbanization is also creating large, densely populated areas where diseases spread rapidly too.
If we really, truly want to break the COVID-19 chain, and prevent the next pandemic waiting in the wings. Then we need to become smarter at stopping pathogens spreading from animals to humans.
The world needs to do this at two levels. These are (a) manage the trade in wildlife better, and (b) proactively improve the sanitary conditions of homeless people, who are too poor to afford the precautions themselves.
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