Effects of the Environment may lead to disease outbreaks

by John Kiwanuka Ssemakula, 27 March 2002

Effects on the environment are increasingly leading to the emergence of new diseases. Destruction of forests and habitation by man of previously remote animal and insect area is exposing people to new diseases. In the latest warning a report in the East African Medical Journal, 2 Kenyan virologists have said that increased deforestation leading to greater contact with wildlife is exposing Kenyans and Africa as a whole to "unprecedented epidemics caused by Ebola like viruses".

Deforestation is strongly linked to the emergence of diseases that affect man and livestock by exposing them to new insect disease carriers. Arboviruses (insect borne diseases) cause a wide range of diseases including deadly hemorrhagic fevers and potentially lethal meningitis like diseases.

An example is the Rift Valley Fever virus carried by several different kinds of mosquitoes. In 1997-98 there was a major outbreak in Kenya and Somalia affecting farmers and livestock. Other diseases that could be increased by deforestation are yellow fever, dengue fever, and West Nile Fever virus. Wild animals are the reservoirs for many of these diseases and there is cause to believe that many of these viruses are increasingly crossing over from the animal hosts to humans leading to risk of epidemics.