While the current Covid-19 pandemic is not yet behind us, some are wondering about the future. As part of their study, Australian researchers attempted to determine areas where an upcoming pandemic-causing virus could appear.
For sure, the Covid-19 pandemic will not be the last that humanity will have to endure. In April 2020, a British professor had already affirmed this in an article with strong collapsological hints. The person concerned mentioned " a dress rehearsal for the type of collapse that climate change risks causing " . Indeed, the latter believes that climate disturbances, but also fires are capable of disturbing the migratory routes of animals. These are then likely to migrate to cooler areas, where humans are more at risk of virus transmission.
A month later, an American writer spoke instead of the risks associated with intensive farming. The latter mentioned the other threats of pandemic influenza viruses such as H1N1 (swine flu) and H5N1 (bird flu). These appeared in industrial pig and chicken farms before mutating to infect humans. The author also called for changing our lifestyle and consumption habits.
While the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet clearly established, some researchers are already imagining the future. In an article in the journal One Health on October 8, 2020, researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney (Australia) tried to determine which areas of the globe will soon be most likely to become the breeding ground for the next pandemic worldwide.
The study leaders thought about places where human-animal interactions are numerous. They also considered certain aggravating factors such as human activities. For example, deforestation is a source of destruction of animal habitats, encouraging their movement and therefore contact with humans. It is also about the flow and size of these populations.
The researchers mentioned sub-Saharan Africa as well as parts of Asia (South and Southeast). Mainly due to a failing healthcare system, the emergence of a new virus might not be detected and countered quickly. Two cities in particular caught the attention of the study leaders:Mumbai (India) and Chengdu (China). However, these two cities are important crossroads and are themselves already very populated.
Finally, the study also falls under the caveat. Researchers believe that if nothing is done upstream, hundreds of thousands of viruses present in mammals and birds could contaminate humans in the very near future. According to scientists, it is possible that new infectious diseases infect humanity every 8 months!
