Devastating diseases such as Ebola, AIDS or currently Covid-19 have something in common: their pathogens have spread from animals to humans. These zoonoses are among the greatest threats to mankind. The role played by factory farming, climate change and species extinction.
By Andrew Weber
The face of the 40-year-old woman on the hospital bed looks small and fragile, pale despite the suntan that a few weeks of trekking holidays in East Africa have given her skin. The Dutch woman returned to the town of Bakel just a few days ago.
She had crossed Uganda and visited the python cave in Queen Elizabeth National Park. With a guide, she had descended to the dark chasms at the foot of a cliff, where thousands of fruit bats of the species Rousettus aegyptiacus buzzed around the invaders’ roost: an exotic experience, up close and personal with Africa’s most remote nature.
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Source: Stern