Why are we seeing more pandemics? Our impact on the planet has a lot to do with it, say researchers

Medical Xpress September 26, 2024
Olga Anikeeva, Jessica Stanhope, Peng Bi and Philip Weinstein, The Conversation

Pandemics—the global spread of infectious diseases—seem to be making a comeback. In the Middle Ages we had the Black Death (plague), and after the First World War we had the Spanish flu. Tens of millions of people died from these diseases.

Then science began to get the upper hand, with vaccination eradicating smallpox, and polio nearly so. Antibiotics became available to treat bacterial infections, and more recently antivirals as well.

But in recent years and decades, pandemics seem to be returning. In the 1980s we had HIV/AIDS, then several flu pandemics, SARS, and now COVID (no, COVID isn’t over).

So why is this happening, and is there anything we can do to avert future pandemics?

Unbalanced ecosystems

Healthy, stable ecosystems...