Africa’s cities are melting pots of activity and interaction. There are fears that the continent’s next major modern disease crisis will emerge from them.
Many pet fish end up in ponds, fountains and waterways. But before ditching your goldfish in the park, stop and think about the viruses you could also be releasing.
Slugs and snails can be accidentally eaten by dogs, wildlife species and humans.
Shutterstock/Bankolo5
Extragalactic astrophysicists want to know how and why galaxies stop forming stars, change their shape and fade away. With help from citizen scientists, they’re figuring it out.
The cultivation of pig organs for human transplantation carries great risk and promise.
CAFNR/flickr
Public attention is focused on whether we should use gene editing technology on embryos, but it could potentially have a bigger and more immediate impact on human health via animal organ donation.
Frog chytrid may have been spread by humans. It is a fungus that has decimated amphibian species.
Reuters
Household pets are often a great source of joy and have positive effects on our mental well-being. For most of us, this outweighs the risk of coming into contact with the bugs they may carry.
Two women walk in front of a billboard, which says “Ebola must go. Stopping Ebola is Everybody’s Business” in Monrovia, Liberia, January 15 2015.
UNMEER/Emmanuel Tobey
Along with better strategies to respond to outbreaks in human populations, we need a stronger focus on surveillance in animals to identify infectious diseases before they pose a risk to human health.
Some rat, possum and mozzie species thrive when living close to people.
Mark Philpott/Flickr
Our world is becoming increasingly urbanised. In 1950, just 30% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. This number is now over 50% and rising. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population are…
A Liberian health worker disinfects a street corner where a suspected Ebola patient was picked up by an ambulance.
EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
The number of reported Ebola cases is doubling roughly every five weeks in Sierra Leone, and in as little as two to three weeks in Liberia. The number of reported cases globally is projected to reach 10,000…
In an era flush with vaccines and antibiotics, when the greatest health risks in the developed world ride on the back of fried fish and hamburgers, it is easy to forget that infectious diseases still account…
About 6,000 years ago, a bacterium underwent a few genetic changes. These allowed it to expand its habitat from the guts of mice to that of fleas. Such changes happen all the time, but in this particular…
Foot and mouth disease wreaks havoc on the economies of countries where it breaks out.
CSIRO
Australia has been free of foot and mouth disease since 1872, but it is still considered the most serious biosecurity threat to Australia’s agricultural industries. A widespread outbreak could cost the…
Electron scanning microscope photo of Mycobacterium bovis bacteria.
CDC
Britain’s badgers stand on the brink of being shot, gassed or even forcibly fed oral contraceptives, all in the name of fighting the spread of tuberculosis in cattle. But what dangers does bovine TB (as…
The global focus on emerging infectious disease has turned to bats since they were identified as the probable source of SARS.
Toby Mann
The last 30 years have seen a rise in emerging infectious diseases in humans, of which more than 70% are zoonotic. Zoonoses are diseases that normally exist in animals but have the potential to transmit…
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney