“Biodiversity loss” resulting from human activities has been shown to be the factor that has the greatest impact on the emergence of infectious diseases globally. Getty Image Bank
American scientists analyzed the results of human activities that influence the spread of infectious diseases and concluded that “biodiversity loss” is the most important result of human activities that cause the global spread of infectious diseases. Instead, the interpretation is that managing ecosystem health can greatly assist in reducing infectious diseases.
Jason Lore, professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, in the United States, examined data from previous observations and confirmed that biodiversity loss has the greatest impact on the global epidemic of infectious diseases among the findings of human activities published in an international academic journal on the 8th (local time). It was published in “Nature”.
According to previous research, human activities are known to contribute to the increase in new infectious diseases caused by socioeconomic, environmental and ecological factors. There are many factors that cause infectious diseases, but it was unclear which factor had the greatest impact on the occurrence of infectious diseases. Without knowing which factors have the greatest impact on infectious disease risk, it is difficult to adequately establish methods to mitigate infectious diseases.
The research team examined approximately 3,000 existing observational data that analyzed the impact of infectious disease epidemics based on global drivers of change. It included 1,497 host-parasite combinations (including all infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses), including plants, animals and humans.
The survey results showed that biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, climate change and the introduction of invasive species were significantly related to the increase in the incidence of infectious diseases. The research team analyzed that the incidence of infectious diseases has increased by a whopping 857% due to the loss of biodiversity due to human activities. This is an overwhelming influence compared to other factors such as chemical pollution (393%), climate change (111%) and the introduction of invasive species (65%).
Urbanization has been shown to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases. This is believed to be because water quality and sanitation conditions have relatively improved in cities, habitats for pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, and non-human host organisms have been lost.
The research team said: “Efforts to control biodiversity loss by managing ecosystem health will help prevent infectious diseases.”
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