Human activities responsible for zoonoses 

Human activities responsible for zoonoses 

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Health

In News:

• According to experts, the coronavirus outbreak comes from the animal world. 
• It is human activity that enabled the virus to jump to people.
• The specialists are also warning that if human activities continue at this pace, the world will suffer from many other pandemics of similar nature in the future. 

Important value additions:

Zoonoses

• Zoonoses is the name given to diseases transmitted from animals to humans. 
• They are not new. 
• Tuberculosis, rabies, toxoplasmosis, malaria, etc., are all zoonoses.
• According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 60% of human infectious diseases originate from animals.
• Also, 75% of emerging diseases such as Ebola, HIV, avian flu, Zika, or SARS originate from animals. 
• The emergence of such diseases is often associated with environmental changes or ecological disturbances, such as increase in human settlement, encroachments into forests and other habitats, etc.