How deforestation can lead to more infectious diseases
29.04.2020 - Nadia Pontes
Scientists have been repeating the warning for at least two decades: As humans encroach upon forests, their risk of contracting viruses circulating among wild animals increases. That's why Ana Lucia Tourinho wasn't surprised when she heard about the novel coronavirus. An ecologist at the Federal University of Mato Grosso in Brazil, Tourinho studies how an environmental imbalance can cause forests and societies to become sick.
Before it infected the first humans and spread through the world by living in travelers' bodies, the novel coronavirus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, inhabited other hosts in a wild environment — most likely bats. When such viruses are isolated and in equilibrium in their habitat, for example a closed forest, they are not a threat to humans. The problem arises when this natural reservoir is cut down, destroyed and occupied.
Scientific studies published before the current pandemic had already showed a connection between deforestation, the proliferation of bats in the damaged areas and the family of coronaviruses, which includes the current lethal strain.
The scenario is similar in the Amazon. In 2019, deforestation reached a record-breaking 9,762 square kilometers (3,769 square miles). Reports of deforestation increased by 51.4% between January and March 2020 in comparison to the same period the previous year. An analysis by Columbia University in New York showed that the region, which houses the biggest tropical forest in the world, is also considered a likely center for epidemics. It also found that bats in Brazil carried at least 3,204 types of coronaviruses.
"If the Amazon turns into a great savannah, we can't even imagine what kind of diseases [could] come out of there. It's unpredictable," Tourinho said. "Besides being important to us because of the climate, the fauna, it is important for our health."
Adapted from: https://www.dw.com/en/howdeforestation-can-lead-to-more-infectiousdiseases/a53282244. Access: 05 out. 202.
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