![Coronavirus: which viruses are causing the next pandemic?](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2020-10-10/i96963-coronavirus-quels-virus-a-l-origine-de-la-prochaine-pandemie.jpeg)
Other viruses are circulating and scientists are preparing for possible future epidemic threats. Since 2015, the WHO has included, on a list, the infectious diseases present in the world, likely to trigger an epidemic.
What are these potentially dangerous viruses?
The new coronavirus has caused more than 1 million deaths worldwide, since the first contamination in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. The other viruses, triggering diseases with possible risks of aggravation as well as spread on a European and global scale, are being monitored by health organizations. This is also one of the missions of the WHO, which the director of health emergency management, Dr Michael Ryan, is responsible for. For the moment, 9 infectious diseases caused by pathogens are listed on this list and are the subject of rigorous observations. Coronaviruses (Covid-19, SARS and MERS in the Middle East), Ebola and Zika viruses or fever (from Lassa, Crimea-Congo) are some of them, among others. Also, the list is not exhaustive. The last one, nicknamed “Disease X”, Is listed in anticipation of the next epidemic, because researchers can not predict which agent could be responsible. Dr Michael Ryan warns: “We are taking too many risks”.
How to act in prevention?
A large part of the viruses have an animal origin. Animals “tanks”Are carriers of viruses, bacteria or parasites and participate mainly in their reproductive cycle. They can contaminate other animal species, but also humans. Frédéric Keck, researcher at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) and anthropologist specifies that “bats are reservoirs for coronaviruses, mosquitoes for dengue fever and primates for Ebola or AIDS”. He adds that “75% of new pathogens come from animals”. Another CNRS researcher, Serge Morand, blames the intensive breeding of animals that are intended to feed us. According to him, these animals are sick, because they are mainly homogenized industrial breeds, the reproduction of which is impossible. They are unable to feed themselves and become perfect hosts for infectious diseases, the result of poor functioning of their immune system. To limit the transmission of these pathologies, the researcher explains that “we must therefore review our relationship with animals”, Because they circulate on both sides in the world. Local consumption remains, according to him, a way to avoid future epidemics. The population, especially France, is beginning to realize the effects of globalization on health and the environment. Serge Morand remains convinced, “the absolute urgency is to de-globalize agriculture”.
Read also: Blood reserves: The alert from the EFS, denouncing an “extremely worrying” situation