Challenges
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Challenges
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In this chapter we list problems that people or governments encounter
when they want to get rid of zoonoses and give some solutions as
well.
Identification of disease in animals
Most zoonoses produce no clear symptoms in animals. The animals
may not have any symptoms at all while infected and while able to
spread the disease to humans and other animals. This makes awareness
of these diseases in animals difficult. There are however a few
symptoms that should really sound all alarms:
- Sudden death of an animal (especially cattle). This can be the result of lightning, but you should really consider the possibility of anthrax! So: do not touch nor eat animals that died without any obvious cause! Always call your local vet, if possible.
- Abortion. Some zoonoses, like brucellosis, cause animals as well as humans to abort. Make sure that pregnant women do not touch the fluids of an aborted animal. They should not touch the dead foetus either!
Identification of zoonoses in humans
The signs and symptoms of zoonoses in humans are often similar to
other (ordinary) diseases, like flu. Medical persons may not recognize
a disease as zoonosis and, especially in remote areas, medical practitioners
may be less qualified to do so.
Cooperation between veterinarians and medical doctors
The medical world and veterinary world often exist as separate entities.
Medical persons may cure humans that are ill from a zoonosis,
but they often do not know how to prevent zoonotic diseases from occurring.
Prevention of zoonotic diseases is best done through veterinarians:
educating people about animal health, vaccination of animals
and so forth. But neither the medical professionals nor the veterinary
professionals feel really responsible for taking care of good preventive
programmes. This may change if the medical professionals and veterinarians
would cooperate more.
Globalization
Globalization is seen as one of the most challenging issues when it
comes to the prevention of zoonoses. People can travel from one side
of the world to the other without any check on whether they are carrying
diseases. Control measures that avoid worldwide spread of diseases
are very costly and are not affordable for many countries.
"New" zoonoses
"New" zoonoses have emerged during the past few decades. We put
"new" between quotes because these emerging zoonoses are not always
completely new diseases. Avian influenza, for example, already
exists and is a well-known disease. What is new about the recent outbreaks
is that avian influenza caused human deaths and that there is a
possibility that this virus may cause a new worldwide influenzaepidemic.
Other examples of emerging zoonoses are BSE (Bovine
Spongioform Encephalopathy) and SARS, which have raised much
public awareness. People fear that new diseases and new zoonoses can
emerge any moment. At least it shows that there is still a lot we do not
know.
Prioritization
Medical organizations need to prioritize their goals. Eradication or
control of diseases like human tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS
are currently given much higher priority than any other infectious disease,
including zoonoses. This results in a lack of (financial) resources
for research on zoonoses and for preventive measures against
zoonoses. Zoonoses that do get attention are those that are a (possible)
threat to the richer countries in North America and Europe.
Lack of knowledge
Knowledge about zoonoses is lacking in many ways. Livestock owners
and pet owners, for instance, often do not know about the existence
of zoonoses. Or if they are aware of zoonoses they are not sure
about what a zoonosis is and what is not. We hope that this book will
fill in the gaps and provide the owners and providers of animals with
the relevant information. Knowledge is also lacking among researchers,
veterinarians and medical doctors who do not exactly know where
and how often zoonoses occur. For example, to medical professionals,
bovine tuberculosis is not an issue, because they see human tuberculosis
as a much bigger problem. Veterinarians on the other hand focus
especially on bovine tuberculosis and say that it is a major threat to
humans in African countries. But because there is no exact data on
bovine tuberculosis we do not know how significant it really is. Exact
data is only available on ?new? emerging zoonoses and three of the
"older" zoonotic diseases (echinococcosis, trypanosomiasis and rabies).
Resistance to change
Attempts to get rid of a certain disease by preventive measures are
often difficult. People do not like to change their habits or beliefs. This
goes for almost everyone, no matter where (also applicable to western
countries). Development programmes will not succeed if they do not
listen to the people they want to help. If people believe that a curse
has made them ill, it will be extremely difficult to tell them that their
disease is due to a bacterium or a virus that they cannot see.
| Box 10: Maya practices
Mayan views are very different from western views: they use concepts of
"wind" and "bad wind" if they speak about health and disease. It is therefore
very hard to explain the existence of bacteria and microbes to Mayan people.
An educational organization in southern Mexico used the concept of "wind" to
explain how diseases are transmitted and this concept is now successfully
used in health campaigns.
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Preventive measures have an added dimension of difficulty. If people
are ill and are given medicines that make them better, then the relationship
between medicine and getting better is clear. If people who
are not ill are asked to change their eating habits while they continue
to remain healthy, then the relationship between changing eating habits
and remaining healthy is not so clear.