“Most zoonotic diseases are not world-stopping, but a daily reality for millions, write Eric Fèvre and Naomi Marks.
Many scientists working on diseases affecting people in developing countries and their animals are refocusing part of their work on COVID-19. The result is that while the pandemic response is receiving a welcome boost, the prospect for research into lesser-known diseases of poor people in poor countries is less certain.
Most diseases that transmit from animals to humans (zoonoses) are not of the headline-grabbing, world-stopping variety. They are an everyday reality for millions of people whose lives are quietly blighted or prematurely ended by diseases transmitted through farming and food systems.
These include trypanosomiasis, which impacts livelihoods when cattle are infected and in people causes sleeping sickness, and non-typhoidal salmonella, which in Sub-Saharan Africa alone kills an estimated 100,000 people a year.”
