Scientists reported the number of potentially dangerous viruses
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Experts believe that at the moment there are more than three hundred thousand unknown viruses in nature, which can later be dangerous for human health and life.
American scientists published a statement that a large number of viruses, common in the animal kingdom, after a while can be modified and become a threat to the human body. Statistics indicate that more than seventy percent of known viral diseases (eg, Ebola, SARS, influenza, African fever) are zoonoses. Zoonotic infections or zoonoses are infectious diseases, the causative agents of which are parasites only in certain species of animals. Accordingly, for humans, the source of a dangerous disease can be an animal in the body of which is a parasitic organism. It is noteworthy that zoonotic infections are almost never transmitted from person to person, for the normal circulation of a viral disease in the chain, it is animal organisms that are needed.
For several years, a group of researchers from the United States and Western Europe has been studying the viral potential of the animal world. Many experts are sure that the number of viruses unknown to modern medicine is constantly increasing and over time they can become unsafe for the life of the inhabitants of the planet. Employees of twenty research centers were engaged in studying already known virus diseases, which are transmitted from animal to human. During the research, statistical data were processed, as well as the results of the latest field experiments.
The head of the study reported that according to statistics, over the past few decades, several acute cases of the pandemic were recorded. A pandemic is a massive epidemic that has taken on a general character - the spread of a dangerous infectious disease in the territory of an entire country or a whole continent. Epidemiologists believe that both wild and domestic animals are the main sources of mass infectious diseases. One of the most famous viruses, the causative agents of which were parasitized in animals, is the bird flu virus, the SARS virus, which is also called the virus of severe acute respiratory syndrome, as well as HIV.
Analysts calculated that to study the viruses that can eventually become dangerous to the human body, it will take about 6-7 billion US dollars. According to preliminary estimates, there are more than three hundred thousand dangerous for human viruses in the animal world, which can lead to mass diseases. In order to prevent possible epidemics of new infectious diseases, researchers plan to study potentially dangerous viruses, develop possible vaccines and provide adequate protection for those who will be confronted with vector-borne animals. Scientists are sure that only a detailed study of the possible danger will help prevent mass epidemics.
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