Monkeypox has been declared a global health emergency for the second time in the last two years. Its patients are also seen in India’s neighboring country Pakistan. Meanwhile, it is also being said that infectious diseases often come from African or Asian countries. Apart from monkeypox, diseases like corona virus, Zika and Ebola first appeared in Africa or Asia.
According to the World Health Organization’s Disease Outbreak News, most of the globally feared diseases have their source in either Africa or Asia. At the same time, diseases spreading from animals to humans are more visible in Africa. Within 10 years from 2012, it increased by 63 percent. In these 10 years, more than 18 hundred such diseases came here which were infectious, or which can be called new.
What diseases came from Africa
Anthrax, avian influenza, cholera, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, dengue, hepatitis B, C and E, monkeypox, plague, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever and Zika virus. Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers accounted for 70% of the diseases in this outbreak, while other diseases including dengue, anthrax, plague and monkeypox accounted for 30%.
Many outbreaks were also seen in Asia, especially from China. For example, if we take Corona, it started from Wuhan province. Even before this, this country became the source of many infectious diseases, such as Black Death and Asian Flu. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which has a high mortality rate, also appeared for the first time in South China.
There could be many reasons why diseases continued to spread from China to African countries and Asia.
The first thing in this is the population here. According to the World Bank, 60 percent of the world’s population lives in Asia and the Pacific alone. Now migration is also happening here. Forests are being cut to accommodate the new arrivals. In this process people come in direct contact with wild animals. These contain thousands of viruses that can attack humans.
Live animal markets are set up here, like if we take China, the Wuhan wet market was much discussed here. Here, in the name of exotic food, you can even find wild animals like bats and snakes. Due to lack of space in the market, many types of species are kept close to each other. Due to this, killer viruses spread from one to another.
In many areas of Africa, direct hunting of wild animals for food is also prevalent. Especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. People go to the forests and after hunting, come in direct contact with animals in the process of cooking them. This was considered a major cause of zoonotic diseases.
Many other reasons are also being counted behind this. For example, due to global warming many diseases are spreading, such as infectious diseases related to mosquitoes. Also, since healthcare is not that developed in Africa, the disease is not caught in time.
As we go, let’s learn about the disease Mpox, which is raising concerns. This is a viral disease caused by monkeypox virus. MPox was earlier known as monkeypox. This virus was first identified in the year 1958. At that time the outbreak of this disease had increased significantly in monkeys. This virus belongs to the same Orthopox virus family as all other pox viruses. Monkeypox virus is an infection spread in monkeys, that is why it is being called monkeypox virus. This virus also spreads to humans by coming in contact with infected animals, as is currently visible.