Studies suggest the next pandemic could originate in Southeast Asia

The coronavirus ravaged the world shutting down industries all over. The world receives a global pandemic roughly once a century. With scientists rushing to find vaccines for the coronavirus, some researchers have already started to find out where the next pandemic might appear and its origins. A study by Australian researchers reveals that a new pandemic might be sooner than expected.

According to the study, 75 percent of new diseases in humans have animal origins and the sharing of space between wildlife and humans in recent decades has increased the transfer of pathogens that cause the diseases from animals to humans.

This means that the cities all over the world where there is a high share of humans and animals are potentially expected to be the source of the transfer of pathogens bringing new diseases to the world. Furthermore, the cities that are travel centers are more likely to be the epicenter of a new disease.

The authors say, “We identify areas where the sharing of space between wildlife and humans is high, health system performance is low, and critical interfaces are located adjacent to cities with high global connectivity.”

Keeping all this in mind, the researchers believe that the next pandemic will most likely be in Southeast Asian, sub-Saharan African, and South Asian cities. Cities like Mumbai, India, and Chengdu, China, and Bangkok, Thailand are at high risk as they are also centers of travel.

They go on to say, “This investigation has shown that there are substantial animal-human interfaces in areas of poor health system performance, highlighting those areas of potential impactful spillover where health infrastructure may be insufficient to identify spillover cases early and block onward human-to-human transmission should this emerge.”

Image Source: Medanta