monkey pox SARS West Nile these new
illnesses are all viruses and they’re
all ZOA notic diseases ones that
normally live in animals and have
somehow jumped into people 25 years ago
HIV was an obscure virus that evolved
from rainforest monkeys today some 40
million people are infected could one of
these newly emerging viruses be the next
HIV and threaten us all for many years
I’ve been giving a talk called revenge
of the rainforest and you know people
always thought that was an interesting
topic but certainly not relevant to
those living safely in Wisconsin or Ohio
or Indiana but there are lots of
examples of diseases rainforest diseases
becoming major public health problems in
the rest of the world in 1999 a deadly
disease emerged in the u.s. that had
never been seen before in the Western
Hemisphere
it was West Nile virus nobody had even
remotely imagined West Nile coming to
the United States I mean here is is it
disease its entire ecology involves the
Nile Sudan Upper Egypt swamp lands a
very specific set of birds and
mosquitoes indigenous to that ecology no
one could have imagined it could emerge
in the concrete jungle of Manhattan and
queens and become a problem that now is
seen in almost every single state in the
United States and carried by indigenous
mosquitoes and indigenous birds partly
because it was so unexpected West Nile
proved difficult to identify it began
with a rash of encephalitis cases in New
York then hundreds of dead crows began
to appear but it took time to connect
the two until 2002 Dan Scanlon was a
vigorous man then he and his wife Betty
were both bitten by a mosquito Dan
collapsed
was in the hospital in a coma and when I
woke up I found out that she was in the
hospital with apparently the same thing
they performed a spinal tap on Betty –
and it was inconclusive but why of all
symptoms are there exactly that doctor
said yet she definitely had West Nile
virus and I never saw her conscious
again Dan’s wife Betty was killed by
West Nile virus Dan himself was left
badly disabled the virus can cause
inflammation of the brain disorientation
and paralysis in 2006 West Nile killed
177 people in the u.s. mostly elderly
very young or with weakened immune
systems
fortunately the odds of catching it are
small the disease is spread by
mosquitoes and one of them could even
have brought West Nile to the US all it
takes is an infected bug to stow away on
an international flight now West Nile is
carried by birds in the United States as
they follow their migratory routes they
ferry the virus with them one recent
study indicated it’s had a devastating
impact on birds killing hundreds of
thousands and now that West Nile is
established in our ecosystem it’s
probably here to stay
[Music]
illnesses are all viruses and they’re
all ZOA notic diseases ones that
normally live in animals and have
somehow jumped into people 25 years ago
HIV was an obscure virus that evolved
from rainforest monkeys today some 40
million people are infected could one of
these newly emerging viruses be the next
HIV and threaten us all for many years
I’ve been giving a talk called revenge
of the rainforest and you know people
always thought that was an interesting
topic but certainly not relevant to
those living safely in Wisconsin or Ohio
or Indiana but there are lots of
examples of diseases rainforest diseases
becoming major public health problems in
the rest of the world in 1999 a deadly
disease emerged in the u.s. that had
never been seen before in the Western
Hemisphere
it was West Nile virus nobody had even
remotely imagined West Nile coming to
the United States I mean here is is it
disease its entire ecology involves the
Nile Sudan Upper Egypt swamp lands a
very specific set of birds and
mosquitoes indigenous to that ecology no
one could have imagined it could emerge
in the concrete jungle of Manhattan and
queens and become a problem that now is
seen in almost every single state in the
United States and carried by indigenous
mosquitoes and indigenous birds partly
because it was so unexpected West Nile
proved difficult to identify it began
with a rash of encephalitis cases in New
York then hundreds of dead crows began
to appear but it took time to connect
the two until 2002 Dan Scanlon was a
vigorous man then he and his wife Betty
were both bitten by a mosquito Dan
collapsed
was in the hospital in a coma and when I
woke up I found out that she was in the
hospital with apparently the same thing
they performed a spinal tap on Betty –
and it was inconclusive but why of all
symptoms are there exactly that doctor
said yet she definitely had West Nile
virus and I never saw her conscious
again Dan’s wife Betty was killed by
West Nile virus Dan himself was left
badly disabled the virus can cause
inflammation of the brain disorientation
and paralysis in 2006 West Nile killed
177 people in the u.s. mostly elderly
very young or with weakened immune
systems
fortunately the odds of catching it are
small the disease is spread by
mosquitoes and one of them could even
have brought West Nile to the US all it
takes is an infected bug to stow away on
an international flight now West Nile is
carried by birds in the United States as
they follow their migratory routes they
ferry the virus with them one recent
study indicated it’s had a devastating
impact on birds killing hundreds of
thousands and now that West Nile is
established in our ecosystem it’s
probably here to stay
[Music]
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