Preventing Spillover: How Eliminating Poverty and Deforestation Lessens the Transmission of Disease

Disease is a hot topic these days.  While it’s true that many of the deadliest diseases transmitted to humans came from bats, it's unfair to blame them and call for them to be culled.  Social policies have more to do with solving the threat of a pandemic than the obliteration of more species.  As if we haven’t already done that enough! 

The two hot spots where disease has risen the most are southern China and sub-Saharan Africa.  The Chinese can deal with their problem in whatever way they see fit, hopefully by outlawing wet markets, where rare animals are seen as delicacies that bring good luck (ah yes, the good fortune of a pandemic). 

Africa however has a different problem, relating to poverty.  There is currently no scientific consensus on the origin of AIDS, or how it was first transmitted to humans.  But there is a consensus that it originated from chimps in the Congo Basin of southeast Cameroon, circa 1908.  The AIDS pandemic may have resulted from Cameroonians living in extreme poverty, who had no choice but to eat chimp meat to survive.  In the book Spillover, David Quammen imagines such a scenario happening, in a memorable passage about the origin of AIDS transmission to humans. 

If we can fix extreme poverty in places like Africa, we may effectively prevent the next major pandemic from spreading.  Marburg and Ebola are far deadlier diseases than covid-19.  Granted they aren’t airborne, and therefore don’t transmit as easily; but imagine if an airborne variant were transmitted to humans.  With the ever-increasing population of Africa, it would be transmitted among humans easily.  By eliminating the need for consumption of rare animals, we limit the spread of disease, possibly preventing their extinction as a bonus.    

Another variable is our encroachment on the environment.  By "cutting down" on deforestation and the slaughter of defenseless animals, whose organs are often used as resources (in addition to being food), we better protect ourselves as a species from spillover happening.  Deforestation results in decreased habitat for many animals, forcing them into closer living quarters, allowing the probability of zoonotic transmission of disease to rise.  If we respect the environment by not putting so much pressure on animals to co-exist, we decrease the likelihood of another disease like covid-19 from spreading.