Urbanization May Influence Transmission Of Zoonotic Diseases
Friday, November 11, 2011 - 11:10
in Health & Medicine
Disease has played a vital role in shaping the course of human history--a point famously addressed in Jared Diamond's 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel. Because we have created effective vaccines for so many diseases, and have gone quite some time without a major deadly global pandemic, it is easy to forget that infections are still a real threat. Several years ago, outbreaks of avian influenza served as a powerful reminder that any number of zoonotic diseases--those that can be transmitted between animals and humans--could eventually cross species barriers and cause real harm to humans. read more