For more than 15 years, ecologists and evolutionary biologist Dr. Kevin Olival, has searched the globe for samples from animals that harbor some of the scariest undiscovered viruses as part of the global nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance. Last summer, he joined a group of Indonesian hunters who were looking for roosting bats. Olival wants to be able to find the next undiscovered virus in animals that can jump to humans and cause the next killer pandemic. It is a simple idea: Identify the places where viruses are most likely to jump from animals to humans and get people to change any behaviors that increase risks. They would also hopefully be able to contain emerging infection. The most difficult part of this plan is the identification. Olival and others are trying to build an early warning system. Some experts believe the rate of emerging new disease is rising, thanks to climate change, ecological degradation, and population pressures, all which make it easier for viruses to jump from animals to humans.
“We need to be better informed about future infectious disease threats before they emerge,” said Dennis Caroll,director of the Global Health Security and Development Unit at USAID, to Smithsonian Magazine, “so that our technological countermeasures and our mitigation responses can be better tailored to the specifics of the threat in advance of its emergence.”
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