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New Study Identifies Global Hotspots of Zoonotic Threats | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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New Study Identifies Global Hotspots of Zoonotic Threats

Posted 28 Jul 2025

2 min read

This landmark study presents the first comprehensive global assessment of zoonotic diseases (e.g., Ebola, Nipah, etc) listed as priorities by the World Health Organization (excluding COVID-19).

  • Definition: Zoonotic diseases (also known as zoonoses) are caused by germs (e.g., viruses, bacterial, parasites, and fungi) that spread between animals and people.

Key Findings

  • Globally, 9.3% of the land surface is at high (6.3%) or very high (3%) risk of disease outbreaks.
  • Global Zoonotic Disease Hotspots: Latin America and Oceania (18.6%) are the most at-risk regions, followed by Asia (6.9%) and Africa (5.2%).
    • About 3% of the world’s population resides in high or very high-risk zones; 20% lives in medium-risk areas.

Anthropogenic Drivers Influencing the Risk of the Priority Diseases

  • Climate Factors:
    • Disease risk spikes in warmer climates and rises with increased rainfall up to a threshold.
    • Water deficits promote animal congregation near limited resources, intensifying human-animal contact and transmission potential.
  • Environmental and Land-Use Factors:
    • High livestock density raises spillover risk by increasing infectious pressure from concentrated animal populations near human settlements.
    • Frequent land-use changes and proximity to forests amplify human-wildlife interactions, contributing to outbreak risk.
  • Population density has the strongest individual influence on outbreak risk, especially in rapidly urbanizing, unplanned areas with poor health infrastructure.

Policy Recommendations

  • Climate adaptation, sustainable land-use practices, and urban planning reforms are essential.
  • Health system strengthening, especially for zoonosis surveillance, must be prioritized in high-risk zones.
  • Machine learning models can effectively identify and prioritize surveillance in vulnerable regions.
  • Collaboration across sectors: climate, agriculture, environment, health — is necessary for One Health-based global preparedness.
  • Tags :
  • Zoonotic Diseases
  • Zoonotic Disease Hotspots
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