Scientists predict terrible epidemics for humanity

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Due to the destructive impact of humans on nature, we are threatened by new infectious diseases.

Ecologists from Auburn University in the USA have discovered a connection between the disappearance of natural ecosystems and the emergence of new infectious diseases. Scientists have concluded that the main reason for the emergence of new infectious diseases is a mechanism called the coevolution effect.

Its essence is that certain areas of forests are a kind of “islands” for certain animals. Animals, in turn, are the same “islands” for their parasites, and parasites for infectious pathogens. As soon as one “island” is destroyed, others are destroyed as well.

This effect can be provoked by banal deforestation. As a result of such destruction, animals, parasites and infectious agents begin to develop along independent evolutionary trajectories. At the same time, their genetic diversity increases. And in relation to infectious agents, this provokes the emergence of a special type of strain that avoids the influence of the carrier’s immune system.

In other words, there is a risk of infection being transmitted to humans from animals. Another factor that increases the risk of new epidemics is the presence of “bridge vectors” in a “destroyed environment”: mosquitoes, ticks, and other blood-sucking invertebrates.

New diseases can lead to large-scale epidemics – it takes a very long time to develop drugs, compared to how quickly infections can spread.