The United Nations Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute warned in a report on Monday that the world can expect to see an increase in other diseases that pass from animals to humans. The report, “Preventing the Next Pandemic,” was published on World Zoonoses Day, which commemorates biologist Louis Pasteur who, on July 6, 1885, successfully administered the first vaccine against the zoonotic disease rabies on a nine-year-old boy who was mauled by a dog. UNEP and the ILRI noted that Covid-19 is only the latest in a growing number of diseases whose spread from animal hosts to human populations has been intensified by environmental degradation.
The UNEP-ILRI report indicated that about 60 percent of human infections are estimated to have an animal origin, and of all new and emerging human infectious diseases, some 75 percent “jump species” from animals to people. Excluding the spiraling cost of the Covid-19 pandemic that has so far claimed more than 500,000 lives, the UN said every year some 2 million individuals, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, die from neglected zoonotic diseases. In recent decades, emerging diseases of zoonotic origin have had direct costs of more than $100 billion and if these outbreaks had become human pandemics, the losses would have amounted to $7 trillion.
Even before the world could defeat Covid-19, some scientists said they are closely monitoring the “G4” strain of swine flu virus, which has become more infectious to humans. While China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other scientists said the G4 strain is not a cause for alarm, the UNEP report warned that the continuous exploitation of wildlife and destruction of ecosystems would give rise to other diseases that could jump from animals to humans. Unfortunately, despite the massive real and potential socioeconomic impacts of emerging zoonotic diseases and despite the consensus that prevention is better than cure, UNEP said government efforts to control them at their source have been insufficient.
UNEP and ILRI outlined 10 practical steps that nations, including the Philippines, can take right now to reduce the risk of the emergence of zoonotic diseases. These include expanded research into zoonotic diseases, improved monitoring and regulation of food systems, and incentivizing sustainable land management practices. The report also made a pitch for a “One Health” approach that brings together public health, veterinary and environmental expertise to prevent and respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks.
Given its porous borders, the Philippines’s biggest concern in terms of ensuring the effectiveness of its biosecurity measures is the problem of smuggling. Even government officials have acknowledged the difficulty of preventing animal diseases from entering the Philippines if smuggling of various products, which can carry viruses, is not eliminated. The increase in trade among countries has also made it more challenging to control the entry of shipments from countries where animal diseases, such as African swine fever, have originated.
The Covid-19 pandemic should serve as a stark reminder of the kind of damage that zoonotic diseases can inflict on countries. Policy-makers can no longer just brush aside biosecurity control measures and surveillance systems. They must consider investing more in strengthening mechanisms that will allow us to prevent the next pandemic from a virus that may just be lurking around the corner.