Preventing Viruses Doesn’t Have to Be a Game of Whac-a-Mole

Preventing Viruses

In the Earth’s interconnected ecosystem, humans are interlopers. We’re far outnumbered by viruses alone, not to mention all other animal species. But this fact was largely ignored by most people outside of infectious diseases until 2020, when “coronavirus” became a household word and a microbe killed over 6.5 million people—and counting.1

Nearly every country has experienced how a virus from a different part of the world can devastate families, lead to food shortages, eliminate jobs and completely transform normal life. Viruses have our attention, and that can lead to important changes, building on this wider understanding. However, it will take a shift in scientific priorities and long-term commitment.

Some may wonder why one should bother with this while we’re struggling with the “cleanup” of this global disaster. The answer is immediate and critical, safeguarding human health. About 60% of infectious diseases2 are zoonotic3—pathogens that can jump from animals to humans, and from humans to animals. Close contact with animals, such as a pet sneezing in your face or close encounter with a bird in a tropical forest, could possibly lead to an infection with a virus that starts the next pandemic.

It might sound far-fetched, but this kind of animal–human encounter is now commonplace as cities expand into areas that were once uninhabited by humans. The global trade in exotic pets4 and affordable travel to exotic places to photograph a social media moment contribute to the spread of zoonotic infections. It just takes one infected person or animal on a plane.

Since the way we live could produce more pandemic viruses,5 we need to develop an early warning system to limit the spread of disease. The back-to-back public health emergencies of COVID-19 and mpox offer some guidance.

Preventing Surprises

A universal alarm6 for highly infectious diseases could trigger a response that prevents widespread illness. That begins with understanding the nature of viruses: their host animals, how they spread, symptoms and their treatment. Scientific research in the regions where these viruses exist develops that knowledge, but it’s underfunded and incomplete.

Unlike the headline-grabbing breakthroughs in cancer research, a disease many people have experienced, it can be difficult to see the connection between a virus identified in the tropics and our daily lives. The most recent pandemic and the rush to develop a vaccine made the connection obvious.

We can avoid being surprised again if we adopt a holistic approach to developing this essential body of information.

One Health,7 an approach that looks at the environment, animals and people leverages our interconnectivity to get the best possible results for long-term health for all living things. By tracking what species are dying first in a geographic area, scientists can tell a community what to avoid: plants, animals, river water or even places. Tracing the source of an emerging disease while also studying its transmission can inform everything from a cure for wildlife to a vaccine for humans. By taking care of the animals that carry a virus, the spread to humans can be mitigated or prevented.

We can work to stop pandemics before they take place, so we will have the science and systems necessary to replicate that success all over the world. This will take time and money, which will only become a priority if we see the value of the successes already realized.

Lessons Learned (and Ignored)

The study of smallpox, transmitted among humans, and development of a vaccine showed it’s possible to prevent a devastating disease. The value of this research proved itself with the recent outbreak of mpox.8

Vaccines, the result of fundamental research, have saved millions of human lives over time.9 The importance of this lesson also proved itself yet again during the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of rapid vaccine development and a global vaccination campaign.

But lack of funding for early-stage research means we’re missing critical information. In the case of mpox, we still don’t know which animal is the original source of the virus.10 It’s found in monkeys sometimes, but that’s not the reservoir. That unknown source of the disease could be part of our daily lives, spreading disease all the time without knowing it.

Global awareness is having a positive impact. The World Health Organization renamed monkeypox to mpox because the term is misleading.11 The disease was discovered in 1958, but we haven’t done enough research to even get the name right. A name change can help elevate the need to find the source and make it a funding priority.

One Health12 can provide a template for this and other basic research.

We may not all need to become experts in tropical and neglected diseases, but I feel we need to collaborate13 with scientists who have local expertise and on the ground. We need to partner and collaborate with researchers around the world studying tropical viruses by offering financing and technical support. If we have DNA sequencing machinery that reduces processing time, we can support intercontinental work by seeing that piece is done efficiently. When potential health issues occur in a village, we can help with weighing that risk for global health, raising the concern as a priority for everyone14 who can contribute to a solution: researchers, medical professionals, public health allies and research funding sources.

Science of New Diseases

We need to know what other diseases there are and how they’re mutating and changing. Focusing on the natural world creates the means to keep our ecosystem healthy, including humans. Preparing to cope more effectively for what comes after COVID-19 will keep us from being surprised over and over again.

People will continue traveling for work and pleasure. Cities will continue expanding. The human population will continue growing. The demand for more housing and food and the farms to produce it will continue to transform animal habitats to their detriment and ours. As long as we continue to encroach on animals’ domains, humans will be exposed to more of the diseases they carry.

The convergence of these circumstances and a willingness to respect and explore the animal–human intersection creates an amazing opportunity to expand our knowledge, if we’re willing to shift our perspective to do so.

References

  1. World Health Organization. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://covid19.who.int/
  2. CDC. 8 zoonotic diseases shared between animals and people of most concern in the U.S. [media statement]. May 6, 2019. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/s0506-zoonotic-diseases-shared.html
  3. World Health Organization. Zoonoses. July 29, 2020. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/zoonoses
  4. Bush ER, Baker SE, Macdonald DW. Global trade in exotic pets 2006-2012. Conserv Biol. 2014;28(3):663-676.
  5. Tomori O, Ogoina D. Monkeypox: the consequences of neglecting a disease, anywhere. Science. 2022;377(6612):1261-1263.
  6. Woolhouse MEJ, Rambaut A, Kellam EP Lessons from Ebola: improving infectious disease surveillance to inform outbreak management. Science Transl Med. 2015;7(307):307rv5.
  7. World Health Organization. One health. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.who.int/health-topics/one-health#tab=tab\_1
  8. CDC. Interim clinical considerations for use of JYNNEOS and ACAM2000 vaccines during the 2022 U.S. Mpox outbreak. October 19, 2022. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/smallpox-vaccine.html
  9. World Health Organization. Vaccines and immunization. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.who.int/health-topics/vaccines-and-immunization#tab=tab\_1
  10. CDC. About mpox. July 22, 2022. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/about/index.html
  11. World Health Organization. Monkeypox: experts give virus variants new names. August 12, 2022. Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.who.int/news/item/12-08-2022-monkeypox--experts-give-virus-variants-new-names
  12. One Health Commission. What is One Health? Accessed January 23, 2023. https://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/why_one_health/what_is_one_health/
  13. Njenga MK, Kemunto N, Kahariri S, et al. High real-time reporting of domestic and wild animal diseases following rollout of mobile phone reporting system in Kenya. PLoS One. 2021;16(9):e0244119.
  14. Ng V, Sargeant JM. A quantitative approach to the prioritization of zoonotic diseases in North America: a health professionals’ perspective. PLoS One. 2013;8(8):e72172.

This article by one of our Danaher Life Sciences thought leaders was originally published in IDSE. Shared here by permission.