Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
July 6 is observed as the World Zoonoses Day. Zoonosis is the spread of infectious disease from animals to humans. In case of vice versa, it is called reverse Zoonosis or Anthroponosis. The purpose of the day is to spread awareness of the risks of Zoonotic diseases.
The French biologist, Louis Pasteur, successfully administered the first vaccine against a Zoonotic disease on July 6, 1885. Since French biologist Louis Pasteur gave the first dose of the first vaccine against rabies, a zoonotic illness, on July 6, 1885, Zoonoses Day has been observed all over the world. Zoonotic diseases, commonly referred to as Zoonoses, are contagious illnesses brought on by pathogens that can spread from animals to people. These zoonotic germs can transmit through direct or indirect contact between animals and people. Humans can get Zoonotic viruses from their pets, from farm animals, from hunting, and butchering. It may even spread through an intermediary species. It does not just originate from wild animals like bats or monkeys.
The COVID-19 crisis has served to highlight just how critical the health of our ecosystems is for human well-being and sustainable development. The global COVID-19 pandemic has been a harsh reminder of the age-old threat posed by zoonoses or zoonotic diseases, infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans. Sixty percent of human pathogens come from animals, while 75% of new, emerging and re-emerging diseases are zoonotic.
World Zoonoses Day to highlight the importance of the ongoing work worldwide to prevent, detect, and pre-empt the spread of zoonotic pathogens, such as viruses. As there are various kinds of Zoonotic disease, the prevention and cure is also different. However, some of the practices like safe and appropriate guidelines for animal care in the agricultural sector can help to reduce the potential for foodborne zoonotic disease. Maintaining proper hygiene like doing handwash after contact with animals can reduce the community spread of zoonotic diseases. Having access to clean drinking water and proper waste removal are effective ways to reduce the spread of diseases. Vaccinating household pets and maintaining proper hygiene like washing your hands after close contact with animals can also help.
A positive relationships with pets can help in valuing relationships and also develops the quality of empathizing and compassion in children. Children should provide a healthy environment for their pets and also how they should protect themselves and reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases, by washing lands before and after touching animals, managing feces, using flea and ticks preventives, vaccinating them regularly. It is reported that there are many people who even today lacks awareness regarding zoonotic diseases as we have also seen that many people were even hesitant to take vaccination for Covid-19. Therefore it is important to aware people about the importance of vaccination and correct treatment regards to zoonotic diseases. The way society interacts with animals has serious implications for global human health. People should take proper precautions while interacting with animals and should observe what we eat to avoid zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases also transmits very fast and if not treated can infect a large amount of people and it can be very dangerous for human lives.
(The author is a freelancer and can be reached at [email protected])
