From Ebola to swine flu to HIV/Aids, viruses borne by animals have caused some of the most devastating epidemics in history. What will come next? In Sierra Leone, Joe Shute (a reporter with The Telegraph) joins PREDICT scientists working to find Disease X – a virus that is as yet undiscovered, but which could have the potential to ravage populations.
For the first time, scientists discovered a new ebolavirus species in a host prior to detection in an infected human or sick animal. This discovery Illustrates PREDICT project’s goal to find viruses before they spill over into people.
Congratulations to Dr. Marcela “Marcy” Uhart, director of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center’s Latin America Program. She received the Wildlife Disease Association's 2018 Distinguished Service Award.
Scientists have identified a novel ebolavirus in free-tailed bats in Sierra Leone, providing the strongest evidence to date that bats are the natural hosts of these viruses. The new virus, called Bombali virus, was found in insectivorous bats roosting inside people’s houses. There is currently no evidence of human infection or spillover of this virus.
To prevent the next pandemic, pinpoint it at the source. That’s the idea behind PREDICT, a global surveillance program that has spent almost 10 years hunting for new viruses that could spill over from vulnerable wildlife to humans.
In May, two critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals were found dead on a beach on Oahu. Both were female, and one was pregnant. After performing a necropsy, veterinarians determined that both animals died of toxoplasmosis, a potentially fatal disease that originates in domestic cats.
For the last three years, not one calf has been born to the dwindling pods of black-and-white killer whales spouting geysers of mist off the coast in the Pacific Northwest. Their population decline is alarming and may be due to several factors.
Evaluation of health security systems in the United States in 2016 revealed a prevalent issue: inconsistent coordination across federal, state, and local health sectors. To address this concern, the World Health Organization has encouraged the United States to build a more formal One Health strategy that enables coordination among all stakeholders in human, animal, and environmental health.
