Corona, monkeypox, what’s next?
Epidemiologist Christian Althaus explains which pathogens could spread from animals to humans and why we will be better prepared for pandemics in the future.
–Scientists examine rodents for the monkeypox virus in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Foto: Melina Mara (Getty Images)
The corona pandemic is not over yet, now reports are increasing monkey pox in Europe and North America. Are zoonoses increasing?
Zoonoses are diseases in which pathogens are transmitted from animals to humans. That happens all the time. These include, for example, tick-borne diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and Lyme disease or infections with salmonella or campylobacter, which are transmitted through infected chicken meat or eggs.
However, completely new infectious diseases that originate from animals, such as Covid-19 or recurrent diseases, are more challenging. This means infections with pathogens that were circulating decades ago and are now reappearing in certain regions, such as rabies.
The observed number of zoonoses with completely new pathogens or those that have reappeared have increased significantly in the last 20 years.
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