Thursday, October 7, 2010

Transmission of Diseases from Animals

Nathan Wolfe is a scientist who is working on preventing diseases from spreading out of the animal population and into humans.  HIV was one of these diseases that came from animals (chimpanzees).  The chimpanzees were hunted and caught for bushmeat.  Usually, when bushmeat is hunted, the hunter comes into contact with with the animal's blood - and that is how the diseases spread.  We never really catch the diseases when they are in that transition stage - before they adapt to humans.  This is what Nathan Wolfe is trying to do.  So far, he has made different stations throughout south africa to help to moniter the diseases before they spread.  He is doing this by giving hunters paper to take samples of the animal's blood, that they will then turn into one of his stations, where they will be tested for diseases.


Personally, I think that this is a great method of disease prevention - stopping the disease before it begins and the way that he is going about doing that.  I think that it is pretty amazing that people are still hunting primates (some of our closest relatives) for food.  Even more amazing is how much this practice impacts everyone else's lives in the rest of the world.  Who would have thought that some guy in africa who hunted a chimp would make so many people eventually accuire HIV and AIDS.  I think that trying to tackle this where it starts (in the bush) is the best possible way to stop more of these diseases from becoming worldwide.

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