* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Drake Appears in Teaser for Bobbi Althoff’s New Podcast ‘Not This Again’ – yahoo.com

    Drake Drops a Surprise Cameo in Bobbi Althoff’s Thrilling New Podcast Teaser ‘Not This Again

    From polka to Poison, Corn Palace adjusts entertainment offerings with the times – Mitchell Republic

    From polka to Poison, Corn Palace adjusts entertainment offerings with the times – Mitchell Republic

    How to watch ‘F1: The Movie’ on Prime Video – About Amazon

    Experience the Thrill: How to Stream ‘F1: The Movie’ on Prime Video

    FOX One is now available on Prime Video: Here’s everything to know – About Amazon

    FOX One is now available on Prime Video: Here’s everything to know – About Amazon

    What Are Our Predictions for Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’ Based on What She’s Told Us So Far? – yahoo.com

    Uncover the Hidden Surprises in Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’ – Can You Decode Her Clues?

    Bama Dining Serving Up New Food, Entertainment – UA News Center

    Bama Dining Launches Thrilling New Food and Entertainment Experiences

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    UNLV Responds to Workforce Need with Microcredential in Nuclear Technology – University of Nevada, Las Vegas | UNLV

    UNLV Unveils Cutting-Edge Microcredential Program to Fuel Growth in Nuclear Technology

    Why Technology Will Never Take Over Completely – Patheos

    Why Technology Will Never Completely Control Our Lives

    Alcorn State awarded grant to boost STEM with VR technology – WJTV

    Alcorn State Secures Grant to Transform STEM Education Through Cutting-Edge VR Technology

    Hyundai: The Only Way To Beat China Is To Embrace Technology – InsideEVs

    Hyundai’s Bold Strategy to Outpace China with Cutting-Edge Technology

    Teaching older adults how to use technology – WWNY

    Empowering Older Adults to Master Technology with Confidence

    Denver man receives pacemaker using new technology – CBS News

    Denver Man’s Life Transformed by Revolutionary Pacemaker Technology

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Drake Appears in Teaser for Bobbi Althoff’s New Podcast ‘Not This Again’ – yahoo.com

    Drake Drops a Surprise Cameo in Bobbi Althoff’s Thrilling New Podcast Teaser ‘Not This Again

    From polka to Poison, Corn Palace adjusts entertainment offerings with the times – Mitchell Republic

    From polka to Poison, Corn Palace adjusts entertainment offerings with the times – Mitchell Republic

    How to watch ‘F1: The Movie’ on Prime Video – About Amazon

    Experience the Thrill: How to Stream ‘F1: The Movie’ on Prime Video

    FOX One is now available on Prime Video: Here’s everything to know – About Amazon

    FOX One is now available on Prime Video: Here’s everything to know – About Amazon

    What Are Our Predictions for Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’ Based on What She’s Told Us So Far? – yahoo.com

    Uncover the Hidden Surprises in Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’ – Can You Decode Her Clues?

    Bama Dining Serving Up New Food, Entertainment – UA News Center

    Bama Dining Launches Thrilling New Food and Entertainment Experiences

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    UNLV Responds to Workforce Need with Microcredential in Nuclear Technology – University of Nevada, Las Vegas | UNLV

    UNLV Unveils Cutting-Edge Microcredential Program to Fuel Growth in Nuclear Technology

    Why Technology Will Never Take Over Completely – Patheos

    Why Technology Will Never Completely Control Our Lives

    Alcorn State awarded grant to boost STEM with VR technology – WJTV

    Alcorn State Secures Grant to Transform STEM Education Through Cutting-Edge VR Technology

    Hyundai: The Only Way To Beat China Is To Embrace Technology – InsideEVs

    Hyundai’s Bold Strategy to Outpace China with Cutting-Edge Technology

    Teaching older adults how to use technology – WWNY

    Empowering Older Adults to Master Technology with Confidence

    Denver man receives pacemaker using new technology – CBS News

    Denver Man’s Life Transformed by Revolutionary Pacemaker Technology

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Future Pandemics Will Have The Same Human Causes As Ancient Outbreaks

May 11, 2024
in Science
Future Pandemics Will Have The Same Human Causes As Ancient Outbreaks
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The last pandemic was bad, but COVID-19 is only one of many infectious diseases that emerged since the turn of this century.

Since 2000, the world has experienced 15 novel Ebola epidemics, the global spread of a 1918-like influenza strain and major outbreaks of three new and unusually deadly coronavirus infections: SARS, MERS and, of course, COVID-19. Every year, researchers discover two or three entirely new pathogens: the viruses, bacteria and microparasites that sicken and kill people.

While some of these discoveries reflect better detection methods, genetic studies confirm that most of these pathogens are indeed new to the human species. Even more troubling, these diseases are appearing at an increasing rate.

Despite the novelty of these particular infections, the primary factors that led to their emergence are quite ancient. Working in the field of anthropology, I have found that these are primarily human factors: the ways we feed ourselves, the ways we live together, and the ways we treat one another. In a forthcoming book, “Emerging Infections: Three Epidemiological Transitions from Prehistory to the Present,” my colleagues and I examine how these same elements have influenced disease dynamics for thousands of years. Twenty-first century technologies have served only to magnify ancient challenges.

Neolithic Infections

The first major wave of newly emerging infections occurred with the start of the Neolithic revolution about 12,000 years ago, when people began shifting from foraging to farming as their primary means of subsistence.

Before then, human infections tended to be mild and chronic in nature, manageable burdens of long-term parasites that people carried around from place to place. But full-time agrarian living brought the kinds of acute and virulent infections that we are familiar with today. This global shift was humanity’s first epidemiological transition.

The first emerging infections followed the rise of intensive agriculture. mikroman6/Moment via Getty Images

Farming itself was not the cause. Rather, it was the major lifestyle changes associated with this new enterprise. Agriculture supplied people with high-calorie grains, but often did so at the expense of dietary diversity, resulting in compromised immunity from nutritional deficiencies.

The human population increased dramatically, and so did the number of large and densely settled communities that could sustain the transmission of deadlier pathogens.

Our ancient ancestors domesticated animals for food and labor, and their proximity to one another created opportunities for livestock diseases to evolve into human diseases.

Finally, the social hierarchies of newly agrarian societies led to disparities in the distribution of essential resources for healthy living.

These challenges of subsistence, settlement and social organization were the root causes of humanity’s first major disease transition.

Declining Infections

For a dozen millennia, these patterns spread across the world like a plague of plagues. They persisted until the 19th and 20th centuries, when life expectancy rose with the precipitous decline of infectious diseases in high- and middle-income countries.

Remarkably, the greatest proportion of this decline occurred before the discovery of effective antibiotics and most of the vaccines we use today. Health improvements were mainly due to nonmedicinal factors such as better farming and food distribution methods, major sanitation projects and housing reforms in poor urban areas.

Urban sanitation did more than new medicines to reduce infections in the 19th century. Bettmann via Getty Images

These were significant reversals in the same ancient categories – subsistence, settlement and social organization – that led to the rise of infectious diseases in the first place. They resulted in humanity’s second epidemiological transition, a significant but only partial reversal of the changes that first began in the Neolithic period.

This second pattern was not a panacea. Despite overall health improvements, chronic noninfectious conditions such as heart disease and cancer rose to become the primary causes of human mortality.

Most low-income countries experienced a later version of this transition after World War II, but their health gains from declining infections were significantly less than those of their wealthier counterparts. At the same time, their losses to noninfectious diseases rose at comparable rates. These conflicting trends have led to a “worst-of-all-worlds” scenario with respect to the health of poor societies.

It is also worth noting that the declining infections in low-income societies have depended more on affordable antimicrobial drugs. Given the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens, these medicinal buffers are proving to be little more than short-term solutions for the health consequences of poverty.

With the ability of pathogens to move freely across borders and boundaries, these consequences can quickly become everyone’s problems.

Every corner of the globe is connected by modern travel. fotograzia/Moment via Getty Images

Converging Infections

In recent decades, humanity’s interconnections have reached the point that nearly everyone now lives within a single global disease environment. Borders and boundaries no longer constrain the spread of distant outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically illustrated this new reality, when the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread around the world in only a few weeks.

The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the ways that infectious and noninfectious diseases can interact synergistically with one another to produce even worse outcomes than the simple sum of each disease. This is starkly illustrated by the majority of COVID-19 deaths, which occurred among people with chronic heart, lung and metabolic conditions that are common to a growing proportion of older people in populations both wealthy and poor.

When combined, these challenges have set the stage for the converging disease patterns visible today. This is the third epidemiological transition: the rise of new, virulent and drug-resistant infections occurring in a rapidly aging and highly interconnected world.

Unfortunately, the present pattern entails increasing outbreaks of new and deadly infections. The root causes of these outbreaks are in areas such as commercial agricultural practices, the urbanization of human populations and the challenges of poverty in the face of economic growth.

Despite the magnitude of these determinants, they are essentially the same issues of subsistence, settlement and social organization from 12,000 years ago. Addressing these recurring issues will do more than prepare the world for future pandemics; it will help to prevent them from happening in the first place

Ron Barrett is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Macalester College. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Discover Magazine – https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/future-pandemics-will-have-the-same-human-causes-as-ancient-outbreaks

Tags: Futurepandemicsscience
Previous Post

Rare and Endangered, These Non-Parasitic Lampreys Are Far From Home

Next Post

Harnessing breadfruit starch for bioethanol production

‘Hidden gem’ – the lifestyle village beating the property slump – Stuff

‘Hidden gem’ – the lifestyle village beating the property slump – Stuff

August 24, 2025
UNLV Responds to Workforce Need with Microcredential in Nuclear Technology – University of Nevada, Las Vegas | UNLV

UNLV Unveils Cutting-Edge Microcredential Program to Fuel Growth in Nuclear Technology

August 24, 2025
Women’s football moves mountains in Pakistan – EL PAÍS English

Women’s football moves mountains in Pakistan – EL PAÍS English

August 24, 2025
Lifeguard, 82, Sets Impressive Guinness World Record After More Than 60 Years Lifeguarding – People.com

82-Year-Old Lifeguard Breaks Guinness World Record After Over 60 Years on Duty

August 24, 2025
Powell’s Rate Cut Signal Reflects Economy’s Delicate Position – Hindustan Times

Powell’s Rate Cut Signal Reflects Economy’s Delicate Position – Hindustan Times

August 24, 2025
Drake Appears in Teaser for Bobbi Althoff’s New Podcast ‘Not This Again’ – yahoo.com

Drake Drops a Surprise Cameo in Bobbi Althoff’s Thrilling New Podcast Teaser ‘Not This Again

August 24, 2025
Hamilton County school board rejects mental health center contract – Chattanooga Times Free Press

Hamilton County School Board Rejects Contract for New Mental Health Center

August 24, 2025
Stick to politics? How Donald Trump is using sports to advance his agenda – The Athletic – The New York Times

How Donald Trump Is Using Sports to Advance His Political Agenda

August 24, 2025
A Home at the End of the World – atmos.earth

Discover Your Sanctuary: A Home at the End of the World

August 23, 2025
CWI officially opens new Health and Science Building – Idaho Business Review

CWI Unveils Cutting-Edge Health and Science Facility Transforming Education

August 23, 2025

Categories

Archives

August 2025
MTWTFSS
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jul    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (786)
  • Economy (807)
  • Entertainment (21,686)
  • General (16,639)
  • Health (9,847)
  • Lifestyle (820)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (808)
  • Politics (816)
  • Science (16,019)
  • Sports (21,306)
  • Technology (15,788)
  • World (788)

Recent News

‘Hidden gem’ – the lifestyle village beating the property slump – Stuff

‘Hidden gem’ – the lifestyle village beating the property slump – Stuff

August 24, 2025
UNLV Responds to Workforce Need with Microcredential in Nuclear Technology – University of Nevada, Las Vegas | UNLV

UNLV Unveils Cutting-Edge Microcredential Program to Fuel Growth in Nuclear Technology

August 24, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version