Passport Health logo
Find a Clinic:
Vaccinations|Find a Travel Clinic|Advice
  • Home
    • About
        • Company History
        • Executive Team
        • Careers
        • Contact Us
        • Customer Feedback
        • FAQ
        • Media Kit
        • Mission Statement
        • Passport Health App
        • Privacy Policy
    • Blogs
      • Main
      • Employer Solutions
      • Passports and Visas
    • Close
  • Destination Advice
    • Top Destinations
        • COVID-19 Testing
        • Domestic COVID-19 Restrictions
        • International COVID-19 Restrictions
        • Fit to Fly
        • Brazil
        • China
        • Costa Rica
        • India
        • Kenya
        • Peru
        • Philippines
        • South Africa
        • Thailand
        • Vietnam
    • Destination Advice
        • Tips and recommendations for healthy travel to any destination:

          • Afghanistan
          • Albania
          • Algeria
          • American Samoa
          • Andorra
          • Angola
          • Anguilla
          • Antarctica
          • Antigua and Barbuda
          • Argentina
          • Armenia
          • Aruba
          • Australia
          • Austria
          • Azerbaijan
          • Azores
          • Bahamas
          • Bahrain
          • Balearics
          • Bangladesh
          • Barbados
          • Belarus
          • Belgium
          • Belize
          • Benin
          • Bermuda
          • Bhutan
          • Bolivia
          • Bonaire
          • Bora Bora
          • Bosnia
          • Botswana
          • Brazil
          • British Virgin Islands
          • Brunei
          • Bulgaria
          • Burkina Faso
          • Burma
          • Burundi
          • Cambodia
          • Cameroon
          • Canada
          • Canary Islands
          • Cape Verde
          • Cayman Islands
          • Central African Republic
          • Chad
          • Chile
          • China
          • Christmas Island
          • Cocos (Keeling) Islands
          • Colombia
          • Comoros
          • Cook Islands
          • Costa Rica
          • Cote d'Ivoire
          • Croatia
          • Cuba
          • Curacao
          • Cyprus
          • Czechia
          • Democratic Republic of the Congo
          • Denmark
          • Djibouti
          • Dominica
          • Dominican Republic
          • East Timor
          • Easter Island
          • Ecuador
          • Egypt
          • El Salvador
          • Equatorial Guinea
          • Eritrea
          • Estonia
          • Ethiopia
          • Falkland Islands
          • Faroe Islands
          • Fiji
          • Finland
          • France
          • French Guiana
          • French Polynesia
          • Gabon
          • Gambia
          • Georgia
          • Germany
          • Ghana
          • Gibraltar
          • Greece
          • Greenland
          • Grenada
          • Guadeloupe
          • Guam
          • Guatemala
          • Guinea
          • Guinea-Bissau
          • Guyana
          • Haiti
          • Hawaii
          • Honduras
          • Hong Kong
          • Hungary
          • Ibiza
          • Iceland
          • India
          • Indonesia
          • Iran
          • Iraq
          • Ireland
          • Israel
          • Italy
          • Jamaica
          • Japan
          • Jordan
          • Kazakhstan
          • Kenya
          • Kiribati
          • Kosovo
          • Kuwait
          • Kyrgyzstan
          • Laos
          • Latvia
          • Lebanon
          • Lesotho
          • Liberia
          • Libya
          • Liechtenstein
          • Lithuania
          • Luxembourg
          • Macau
          • Macedonia
          • Madagascar
          • Madeira Islands
          • Malawi
          • Malaysia
          • Maldives
          • Mali
          • Malta
          • Marshall Islands
          • Martinique
          • Mauritania
          • Mauritius
          • Mayotte
          • Mexico
          • Micronesia
          • Moldova
          • Monaco
          • Mongolia
          • Montenegro
          • Montserrat
          • Morocco
          • Mozambique
          • Namibia
          • Nauru
          • Nepal
          • Netherlands
          • New Caledonia
          • New Zealand
          • Nicaragua
          • Niger
          • Nigeria
          • Niue
          • Norfolk Island
          • North Korea
          • Northern Marianas
          • Norway
          • Oman
          • Pakistan
          • Palau
          • Palestinian Territories
          • Panama
          • Papua New Guinea
          • Paraguay
          • Peru
          • Philippines
          • Pitcairn Islands
          • Poland
          • Portugal
          • Puerto Rico
          • Qatar
          • Republic of the Congo
          • Réunion
          • Romania
          • Russia
          • Rwanda
          • Saba
          • St. Barthelemy
          • Saint Helena
          • St. Kitts and Nevis
          • St. Lucia
          • Saint Martin
          • St. Pierre-et-Miquelon
          • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
          • Samoa
          • San Marino
          • Sao Tome and Principe
          • Saudi Arabia
          • Senegal
          • Serbia
          • Seychelles
          • Sierra Leone
          • Singapore
          • Sint Eustatius
          • Slovakia
          • Slovenia
          • Solomon Islands
          • Somalia
          • South Africa
          • South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands
          • South Korea
          • South Sudan
          • Spain
          • Sri Lanka
          • Sudan
          • Suriname
          • Swaziland
          • Sweden
          • Switzerland
          • Syria
          • Tahiti
          • Taiwan
          • Tajikistan
          • Tanzania
          • Thailand
          • Togo
          • Tokelau
          • Tonga
          • Trinidad and Tobago
          • Tunisia
          • Turkey
          • Turkmenistan
          • Turks and Caicos Islands
          • Tuvalu
          • U.S. Virgin Islands
          • Uganda
          • Ukraine
          • United Arab Emirates
          • United Kingdom
          • United States
          • Uruguay
          • Uzbekistan
          • Vanuatu
          • Vatican
          • Venezuela
          • Vietnam
          • Wake Island
          • Western Sahara
          • Yemen
          • Zambia
          • Zimbabwe
    • Close
  • Travel Medicine
    • Travel Medical Services
        • Vaccines for Travel
        • Travel Health Consulting
        • Travelers’ Diarrhea Medicine
        • Dengue Fever Prevention
        • Malaria Medication
        • Chikungunya Prevention
        • Zika Virus Prevention
        • Coronavirus
        • Ebola Virus
        • Travel Health Alerts
    • Additional Travel Services
      • Travel Physicals
      • Motion Sickness Medicine
      • Travel Insurance
      • Physician Referral Program
      • Online Store
    • Close
  • Vaccines
    • Overview
        • Anthrax
        • Chickenpox
        • Cholera
        • Hepatitis A
        • Hepatitis B
        • Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
        • Japanese Encephalitis
        • Malaria Information
        • Measles – Mumps – Rubella (MMR)
        • Meningitis
        • Pneumonia
        • Polio
        • Rabies
        • Shingles
        • Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis
        • Typhoid
        • Yellow Fever
    • Influenza (The Flu)
        • Learn more about your flu vaccine options

          • Flublok®: Egg Free, Cell Based
          • High Dose
          • Quadrivalent
    • Routine Tests
      • COVID-19 Testing
      • TB Tests
      • Titer Testing
    • Routine Vaccinations
      • Overview
    • Close
  • COVID-19
    • COVID-19 Services
      • COVID-19 Testing
      • COVID-19 Domestic Restrictions
      • COVID-19 International Restrictions
      • COVID-19 Vaccine
      • Fit to Fly
      • Fit for Duty
    • Close
  • For Employers
    • Corporate Wellness Solutions
      • COVID-19 Services
      • Occupational Vaccines
      • Onsite Flu Clinics
      • Onsite Biometric Screenings
      • Employee Wellness
      • Employment Physicals
    • Corporate Travel Solutions
      • Travel Medicine and Vaccinations
      • Passport and Visa Services
      • Pre-Deployment Exams
    • Close
  • Online Store
    • Passport Health Store
      • COVID-19 Protection Kit
      • Travelers’ Diarrhea Kits
      • Mosquito Repellents
    • Close
  • Locations
      • United States Map for Locations New Jersey Massachusetts Oregon Nevada South Dakota Montana Wisconsin California Kansas North Dakota Idaho Illinois Michigan Missouri Utah Indiana Louisiana Iowa Florida Georgia Washington Tennessee Alabama Mississippi Arkansas Arizona North Carolina Pennsylvania Ohio Kentucky South Carolina Virginia New Hampshire Rhode Island West Virginia New York Vermont Maine Connecticut Nebraska Oklahoma Colorado Wyoming Maryland Delaware New Mexico Texas Alaska Minnesota New Hampshire Vermont Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut New Jersey Delaware Maryland Hawaii District of Columbia
        Canada Locations Canada Locations
        Mexico Locations Mexico Locations
    • Close
  • Locations
      • United States FlagUnited States
    • Close

Which Disease Epidemics Started in Animals?

May 10, 2017 By Will Sowards 1 Comment

We like to live near animals, causing many of the world's worst diseases.

Diseases sometimes take time before wreaking havoc in humans.

They start off as tiny, mostly harmless germs. But, those germs start to grow and get stronger, looking for some creature to latch onto and cause damage.

Usually those infected creature are animals. Infecting pigs, rodents, insects and other creatures, a virus becomes stronger and harder to eliminate.

With humans and animals spending so much time near each other, the disease then jumps over to people.

These are zoonotic diseases, infections that move from animals to people.

Zoonotic diseases are responsible for some of the world’s deadliest and most infectious epidemics.

But, what are some of the world’s most notorious zoonotic diseases?

Rats get most of the blame, but fleas also contributed greatly to catastrophic pandemic.

Bubonic Plague

It’s no secret that rats and fleas combined to spread one of the world’s most devastating epidemics.

The plague arrived on boats, coming from parts of Asia. Due to dirty and cramped living conditions, the disease spread relentlessly throughout the region. Bigger cities would only need a few months with the disease for it to kill half the residents.

It took less than 10 years for this disease to spread. The Black Death killed 75 million people in 14th century Europe, more than half Europe’s population at the time.

The fleas attached themselves to rats, both of which were infected with the disease. The rats then snuck aboard boats, through sewers or into houses, spreading the Black Death from town to town. The pests and rodents just needed one bite to spread the plague.

Blame no longer solely falls on the creatures. Recent research shows the plague can also be an airborne virus doing a lot of damage without the help of animals.

These insects are responsible for many of the world's deadliest diseases.

Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Check the headlines and you can find tons of stories about insects and worldwide health.

Viruses like Zika and yellow fever dominate headlines for their outbreaks. While receiving less attention, viruses like dengue fever and Chikungunya are still spreading in various parts of the world.

What do all these viruses have in common?

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

This species carries most of the deadliest mosquito-borne diseases in the world. These insects live in an array of climates and like to be near people. Aedes aegypti may only be getting stronger as they develop a resistance to many insecticide sprays.

But, it’s not just this species that gives a bad name to all mosquitoes.

Culex mosquitoes carry Japanese Encephalitis. While this virus is only present in Asia and surrounding areas, the Culex species is common. These are the tiny brown mosquitoes commonly found in a house.

Malaria is the deadliest mosquito-borne disease in Africa and only one type carries that virus.

The female Anopheles mosquitoes carry malaria. These mosquitoes live everywhere in the world but Antarctica, with different species that prefer to feed at every different place and time of the day.

Although these types of mosquitoes are common, there are ways to avoid the viruses. Passport Health offers vaccines for yellow fever and Japanese Encephalitis, along with antimalarials.

These variations of the flu tend to create panic whenever there's even a small outbreak.

Swine/Bird Flu

Avian influenza greeted the world in 1997 with an outbreak in Hong Kong. After some local poultry caught the H5N1 virus, the disease spread to humans and killed 60 percent of the infected.

The virus is most common in poultry, but can infect any bird. Pigeons caught the bird flu and carried it across the globe to Europe, Africa and other parts of Asia.

Other strains of bird flu have been reported, with outbreaks popping up every few years.

Swine flu had less pandemic potential than bird flu, but still created a panic in 2009.

Most flu viruses that infect pigs can’t survive in humans. But, this version of H1N1 made its way to 10-year-old boy in California. After that first infection, the flu passed throughout the state and other parts of North America for more than a year.

The CDC had no previous experience with this kind of flu virus. The strain showed that it came from pigs even though those infected had no contact with the animals.

The WHO determined swine flu was a global pandemic by June, with the outbreak ending the following year.

This odd strain of the virus now seems to appear somewhere in the world during every flu season.

Not every animal is the cause of global pandemics. In fact, some animals even help prevent a disease’s spread by warning the locals.

Howler monkeys in the Brazilian rainforest act as an alarm that goes quiet when yellow fever is in the area.

Any questions about viral outbreaks or how to avoid them? Let us know in the comments, or via Facebook and Twitter!

Filed Under: General Posts

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    December 11, 2020 at 12:06 am

    Thanks! This really helped with my English essay on pandemics from the past!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Do you need your passport or visa in a hurry?

Passport Icon

Get your travel
documents ASAP!

Why Use a Travel Medicine Specialist?

Countless Considerations, Even for Just One Destination!

We Can Answer

  • Which vaccines are required?
  • Which vaccines may be recommended?
  • Which medications do I need?
  • What Travel Supplies do I need?

And much more

Do you need travel vaccines?

Schedule an appointment with your local Passport Health Travel Medicine Specialist

Find a Passport Health Clinic

Latest health alerts for international travelers

International Health Alerts

INFLUENZA Worldwide
June '19 – According to the CDC, annual vaccination against seasonal influenza is recommended for ...

YELLOW FEVER in Argentina, Brazil, Congo, Republic of the, Nigeria, Peru, Suriname, Uganda
June '19 - Case numbers for yellow fever are thought to be greatly under-reported; the World Health...

More Health Alert Information»

Recent Blog Posts

  • How Does Measles Spread? A New Study Gives Answers
  • The Necessary and Unfortunate Identity of “Patient Zero”
  • What Was The Plague of Justinian? How A Single Outbreak Killed 10% Of The World’s Population.
  • Tips To Stay Safe While Traveling Alone

Blog Archives

  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Clinical Trials
  • Contact Us
  • Records Requests
  • Passport Health App
  • Privacy Center
  • Online Store
  • Sitemap
Schedule Your Appointment:
Questions? Please call or E-mail Us
FIRST CLASS MEDICAL CARE
FOR TRAVEL ANYWHERE®

Connect With Us:

Passport Health on Facebook
Passport Health on Twitter
Passport Health on YouTube
Passport Health on Instagram
Passport Health on Linked In
Passport Health Feed

Passport Health is an Outlier business Copyright © 2021