Wildlife Markets and Pandemics
These past months, the foundation of the entire world has been shaken up by COVID-19. This virus has now reached 199 countries and territories around the world and killed 47,208 people. However, COVID-19 isn’t the first coronavirus to scare the world. The 2003 SARS Outbreak resulted in 8,098 cases across 29 countries, not nearly as widespread as COVID-19, but still catastrophic. The similarities between the two outbreaks continue. The elderly were affected the most by SARS; those that were 65 years or older had a 50% higher mortality rate than the average person. Likewise, COVID-19’s mortality rate for people over 80 is around 15%, while the average mortality rate is around 3.5%. However, the most striking similarity between SARS and COVID-19 is their origin: Wildlife markets in China. SARS was traced to a Wildlife market in the city of Foshan while COVID-19 likely came from a Wildlife market in Wuhan. Why did two of the most fearsome outbreaks in the past two decades emerge from similar areas? The answer lies in the extremely unsanitary conditions of these Wildlife markets.
Wildlife markets sell a variety of animals including fish, bats, pangolins, etc. for human consumption. This is dangerous as many infectious diseases originate from animals. Influenza, HIV/AIDS, and Ebola are all diseases that come from birds and pigs; chimpanzees; and bats respectively. To infect humans, these diseases, often viruses, have to make the jump from their animal species to humans, a rare event, but one that is likely to happen in unsanitary conditions. This is where Wildlife markets come in; these markets are extremely unsanitary as animals are crammed together in cages that are stacked on top of each other. All kinds of fluids such as blood and pus culminate in some of these cages and with different species of animals right next to each other, viruses can jump from organism to organism before infecting humans.
After the SARS virus outbreak the Chinese government shut down wildlife markets, but a few months after, officials lifted this ban. Following the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese government shut down wildlife markets once again, but this ban may not be permanent. This time around, world officials and the Chinese people are urging the government to make the ban permanent to avoid another outbreak. If China does not instill a permanent ban on wildlife farming, outbreaks like SARS and COVID-19 will happen again.
References
Shaheen, T. (2020, March 19). The Chinese Wild-Animal Industry and Wet Markets Must Go. National Review. Retrieved from https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/the-chinese-wild-animal-industry-and-wet-markets-must-go/
Vox. (2020, March 6). Retrieved March 28, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPpoJGYlW54
Froelich, P. (2020, January 25). Inside the horrific, inhumane animal markets behind pandemics like coronavirus. Market Watch. Retrieved from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/inside-the-horrific-inhumane-animal-markets-behind-pandemics-like-coronavirus-2020-01-25
