Zoollover Animal Pandemic By Davis Quammen Summary

My book club book, The Roar by Emma Clayton is about a semi-apocalyptic, semi-dystopian, society where there hasn't been any children born for the past 30 years and this is ‘reasonable move’ as Mal Gorman says, because the Animal Plague has been spread rapidly. Not much is known about the animal plague until the very end of the story.

This chapter focuses on Malaria. When Quammen began writing this, he was told to not include Malaria because it was not zoonotic but vector- borne. However, Quammen found that the human version of Malaria come from a mosquito biting an infected gorilla, and then biting a human. Since the disease was delivered to a new host, malaria has now become zoonotic and a spillover. I personally find this chapter of the book to be rather intriguing because compared to some of the other diseases in this book such as Hendra or SARS; I would have liked to think that I was rather knowledgeable about Malaria, but that was not the case. I have never heard of Malaria being a Spillover and I found it compelling to read about in this book. The next chapter of this book, “Dinner at the Rat Farm”, is centered on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). In 2003, SARS made its presence known as it rapidly spread globally to places like Canada and the Philippines. SARS’ origin belongs to southern province of China called Guangdong. The SARS outbreak in China was quick and not to be messed with. It ran ravage through communities and

Pearce‐Duvet, J. (2006). The origin of human pathogens: evaluating the role of agriculture and domestic animals in the evolution of human disease. Biological Reviews, 81(3), 369-382.

Throughout history the human race has been faced with one key factor that no one civilization has even been able to beat, not the might of the Roman-Byzantine Empire, nor the combined efforts of the entirety of Europe and their scholars could defeat this recurring foe. Pandemics, from the Greek ‘pan’ meaning all, and ‘demos’ meaning people (Harper Etymonline.com), are these indiscriminate killers whom care not for your social standing be it wealth, fame, or glory. Humans have contested with disease ever since the infantile stages of the species, but the ability of it to spread was severely inhibited by the fact that humans stayed in small groups of 10-30 people at most, giving the virus or disease severely hampered virulence. It was not till humans began gathering in larger, more permanent settlements such as the early Classical cities of Athens, Ramses, and Rome, that the issue of sanitation and disease came into effect. This has not to say that our issues with sanitation and disease prevention have stopped, rather have they been brought forward into the limelight, many nations around the world today have issues with age old diseases and give rise to extremely deadly new viruses of their own. To fully understand the effect of pandemics in history, then one must consider three major plagues of our recorded history, the first pandemic ‘Plague of Athens’, the pivotal ‘Plague of Justinian’, and the infamous ‘Black Death’

However, disease on the epidemic scale did not appear till certain conditions existed, conditions created namely by the Agricultural Revolution. As communities became more sedentary and developed a more stable means of food production through the domestication of animals and irrigation processes, populations were able to increase at exponential rates, one of the fundamental prerequisites for an epidemic outbreak. An increased population translated into closer living conditions, less sanitary means of waste disposal due to sheer volume, and typically, poorer nutrition, making people more susceptible to a breakdown of the immune system. A higher population, in comparison to that of their hunting and gathering predecessors, meant a greater chance for contracting an illness. Equally important, the Agricultural Revolution demanded the domestication of animals. In living in close proximity to cattle, hogs, and other useful livestock, a phenomenon known as species cross-over took place. This species cross-over refers to the mutation of diseases typically found in livestock to a new form that seeks out a human host. The most classic and devastating example is small pox, a highly fatal disease that causes sores to form on the body and known in cattle as cowpox (Ponting, 225-226). This, coupled with irrigation, providing a host for water-born diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis, sheds a bit of light on the magnitude of the influence of the Agricultural

Diseases can cause a devastating effect on both the human body, and also the human population. Throughout several time periods of the present and past, diseases have caused a humongous impact in several society's in different countries around the world. Several large pandemics and epidemics have killed off the population of many species including humans and primates. Wether the time period is in the present or as far back as the Middle Ages, each and every one of these diseases, have had a life threatening outbreak, across several developing countries. Three known diseases have all created a huge conflict on different civilizations, causing different, unanswered questions to arise. A lot of research has gone into each individual disease, to

In this thrilling novel, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston tells the story of a virus so notorious for its mysterious attacks that it is deemed a Bio-safety Level 4 virus. Richard Preston acquired his inspiration and insight first from his curiosity in his visit to Africa to study epidemiology and second from certain contacts, Dr. C.J. Peters and Nancy Jaax, whom have helped to further Preston’s knowledge of Bio-safety Level 4 agents. Preston incorporates historical facts, interview encounters, and scientific evidence in this nonfiction story of a virus known as Ebola infecting many people and displaying grotesque symptoms such as vomiting blood and pale blue skin. I recommend this book to young readers, epidemiologists, and those interested

An ‘emerging’ disease is one that is speedily increasing in frequency or distribution. This expression not only circumscribes the diseases corresponding with previously unknown agents, but additional known diseases that are ‘re-emerging’, as well. What is it that provokes disease emergence? Epidemiological principles profess that disease is multi-factorial. That is, in inclusion to the existence of the infectious agent, additional factors, such as the agent, host, and/or the environment are all generally imperative for infection and disease to occur. But who would have concluded that one of the most menacing viral infections would result from a mammal? The Nipah Virus Infection (NiV) is a known emerging infection, targeting the public health

The movie began by showing individuals from different parts of the world having the same symptoms of the diseases, which was being spread shortly after being affected. The diseases were then shown to affect numerous individuals and the transmission continued to increases at a fast rate. In hopes of eliminating further spread of the disease, the government begins to quarantine infected individuals. However, throughout the film, it emphasizes that even minimal contact with an infected individual can cause catastrophic consequences (contagion). Researchers cannot defer the transmission of the disease because there is no treatment protocol. There is no information acquired about the disease and it is spreading very quickly which makes it increasingly more difficult for researchers to develop treatment. Due to the fact that there is an initial lack of information, the public’s response to the effects of the pandemic is crazed and quickly escalates out of control (contagion). The public response in the U.S to the effects of the pandemic, are devastating. The public response once it has been named a pandemic is that of people are afraid, people want answers and the cure to a disease and they will go to any level in order to get the cure. Many individuals begin to pillage and steal in order to obtain objects for their survival. They ran shacked supermarkets, destroy property and car, and even rob banks. Everyone wants to live and with lack of vaccines, the country is in an uproar and people will do whatever it takes to survive. Dr. Hextall ultimately discovered the treatment for the disease by testing the vaccine on rhesus monkeys. At the CDC lab, one of the monkeys shows signs that the trial vaccine is working, but Hextall tells Cheever it will take months to test, approve, and then synthesize large amounts of a vaccine. Hextall ignores the protocol and injects herself

Every year almost 175 million people visit a zoo, yet the mistreatment of animals in zoos goes almost completely unnoticed. This mistreatment is constantly swept under the rug by issues that society deems more relevant or impact us more. For example, issues like climate change receive more attention. However, this mistreatment is relevant and is constantly impacting society. These animals that are left malnourished, fatigued, and constantly fighting bacterial infections, are important. Every time an animal is pulled from the wild and put into captivity it impacts the mental health of the animal and endangers everyone and everything around it. Zoos are to blame for this endangerment, yet so is the public for overlooking mistreatment such as enclosures that are too small, surplus animals, and mental illness in animals.

After a civilization gains domesticable animals they will contract some of the diseases those animals hold. One key example are the Spanish, they contracted smallpox from some of their domesticable animals, and although it did kill much of their population eventually they gained an immunity to the disease, but they were still carriers of it. The Inca, which the Spanish later came into contact with, contracted smallpox. This was because they didn’t have an immunity to the disease, because they didn’t have any domesticable animals except llamas, which didn’t carry

Of the 1,415 human pathogens, 61% are zoonotic and infect multiple animal species.4 This means out of the 1,415 pathogens 863 are zoonotic and can be passed to humans from animals. Some of the ways the emergence of pathogens occur are a mutation (canine parvovirus infection), climate change, invasive species, the introduction of a new species (intended or accidental), and biological products.4

In this paper I have discussed the vector borne disease of Lyme disease, and the zoonotic disease of Rabies. Both of these diseases are preventable and treatable but they do present public health hazards. Climate change is adversely impacting environments and humans are now living closer than ever to the boundaries of these diseases. In fact, in greater densely populated areas more and more individuals are coming into contact with such diseases. Prevention requires resources which many developing countries are lacking which leads to inadequate treatment for those whom are

Xenozoonosis: transmission of infectious agents between species. Animal to human infection is normally rare, but has occurred in the past. An example of such is the avian influenza, when an influenza A virus was passed from birds to humans

The American Plague, Molly Caldwell Crosby’s nonfiction novel, accounts the journey of yellow fever from an African virus to the remarkably deadly epidemic that shaped American history in an often overlooked way. Crosby’s novel aims to give insight to the historical impact of yellow fever in the Americas, especially the United States. The novel guides through the history of the titular “American Plague”, yellow fever, in three main parts: its height epidemic in the United States, specifically in Memphis, the Commission to find the cause and vaccine for it, in Cuba, and the effects and presence the epidemic has in the present.