In the last 20 years, we have had six significant outbreaks that were SARS, MERS, Ebola, Avian Influenza, swine flu, and COVID-19. Although we have managed to dodge a major pandemic from the first five, the sixth major outbreak has caught us off guard. This latest pandemic will make the world rethink how we monitor potential outbreaks and how we deal with them. Many factors have contributed to this current pandemic with lessons being learnt. 

Deforestation and Global Warming

Humans have slowly eaten away at natural habitats, driving animals out of habitats and into the urban environment, increasing close human contact with animals. Species such as rodents and bats which are perfect hosts of infectious diseases will be driven into a dense population from which a small pandemic could emerge. The increase in human contact will enable diseases to jump across different species such as humans. The melting of the ice caps may uncover ancient diseases that the world population might not be immune to.

Wet Markets

The existence of wet markets has contributed to the cross-species jump of diseases as animals are kept close to each other and confined in cages. This increases the chances of diseases jumping across species and increases the chances of diseases mutating to become more deadly. The popularity of wet markets in Asia increases the chance of diseases jumping from animals to humans.

Early Warning

The World Health Organisation has a process for how a country should report an outbreak of a new or existing disease. Although this is when an outbreak happens, it’s time to find a way to monitor areas of high risk where diseases could potentially evolve, mutate, and jump species. By monitoring potential risks we can action for prevention, research, and vaccination early and before a major outbreak occurs. Monitoring wildlife diseases and how they develop enables us to predict the likelihood of one developing into a life-threatening disease.

Lessons from the current pandemic

The current pandemic shows the areas of weaknesses that on a global scale we have to improve on from identification, reaction, and long-term recovery plan when a pandemic happens. Countries like South Korea were already prepared for an outbreak of SARS and had started testing their population for COVID-19 as well as implementing some form of track and trace process to track the spread of COVID-19.

See also my blog post on What to learn from COVID-19?