Invest in labs and scientists to stop viral infections
African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases laboratory manager, Philomena Eromon (left) and colleague molecular biologists analyse Covid-19 coronavirus samples in the laboratory located at the Redeemer’s University in Ede, southwestern Nigeria, on June 2, 2020.
What you need to know:
- Nature has a bountiful supply of viruses, some known to science, while others, in fact many, have not yet been identified.
- One proven feature of viruses that cause pandemics is their ability to jump from wild animals to humans.
On March 11, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, having spread to 114 countries and infecting 118, 000 people, of whom 4,291 died.
Ever wondered why most, if not all, epidemics that morph into pandemics in the history of mankind have been caused by viruses?
The list is endless from the Spanish flu (1918-1920) to Asian flu (1957-1958) to Aids (1981 to present) to Sars (2003) to swine flu (2009-2010) to Ebola (2014-2016) to the ongoing Covid-19. Next?
It’s not a question of if, but when the next pandemic will strike. Nature has a bountiful supply of viruses, some known to science, while others, in fact many, have not yet been identified. The next pandemic could, therefore, be caused by an emerging virus or a re-emergence of one that existed previously.
One proven feature of viruses that cause pandemics is their ability to jump from wild animals to humans. Wild animals are endowed with evolutionary ability to host deadly pathogens, including viruses, without suffering illness.
However, when such viruses spill over to a new host, they encounter new environment and mutate to lethal forms, with a potential to not only cause infectious diseases that spread in humans, but also domestic animals, at a breath-taking speed.
Lethal viruses that have leaped to humans from wild origin, following human interference with ecosystem, include HIV (chimpanzee), Ebola virus and coronaviruses (bat) and influenza virus (aquatic birds).
Random mutations
There are two types of viruses — RNA and DNA. The former is far dominant and constitutes a family of viruses irrefutably responsible for most human pandemics, including Covid-19. In these viruses, RNA is a genomic material, an equivalent of DNA in humans.
Unlike DNA, RNA is unstable and highly susceptible to random mutations. This feature confers these groups of viruses with an ability to evolve and adapt rapidly to a new environment — human — allowing them to outrun defensive mechanisms mounted by human immune system and therapeutic drugs.
Mode of transmission also determines the success of a virus in establishing a pandemic. RNA viruses are known to cause acute respiratory infections, often fatal for a brief period, before disappearing.
These infections are characterised by viral shedding in form of respiratory droplets emitted by coughing, sneezing, exhaling, vomiting, bleeding or diarrhoea.
This accelerates transmission of a virus from person to person. There’s a need to invest in surveillance, laboratory facilities and training of disease scientists.
[email protected]; @KerimaZablon
