A few months ago, when Ebola outbreak first began, many of
us just didn’t care much. It was a strange disease happening in one part of
world - West Africa to be precise -that was far away from us. And, so, we
didn’t bother to connect to it at all.
Well, things have changed a lot since then, haven’t they?
Ebola has gone out and beyond of West Africa, infecting, as we speak, 8,300people and claiming 4,033 lives in places including Europe (Spain) and the US.
And it’s spreading. Suddenly we realize, nothing in this world is too unconnected.
No place in this world is too far away. And, in this blog of mine, I want to
also tell you that nothing is also too far-fetched either, especially when it
comes to a crime and its effect on our lives.
Just before I began to write this, I spoke with some
scientists at the 12th Biological Diversity convention (CBDCOP12) who have been studying the link
between biodiversity and infectious diseases. They are Catherine
Machalaba, MPH,Health and Policy Program Coordinator
of the Eco Health Alliance in New York
and Anne-Helene Prieur Richard,
executive director of the Paris-based biodiversity research institute ‘Diversitas’. I asked them
to explain how destruction of biodiversity could also lead to the spread of Ebola
virus globally.
Before I get to their answers, let me remind you what we
already know: The recent Ebola outbreak started where eating
the meat of wild animals (popularly known as “bush meat”) has existed for a
long time. Bat soup, Meat of monkeys and other apes are popular dishes in many countries including Guinea,
Sierra Leone and Liberia.
But, there is a lot of people also buy these
animals for their body parts. As a result, a lot of hunting takes place because
people want to make money by selling the animals – dead or alive. And it is
with this rampant hunting that the threat of spread of a virus like Ebola also
increases.
