At some point in my engagements in yaws research, I wondered why some people live with certain conditions that are treatable or preventable. With the current pandemic, I have questioned whether we (humans) can deal with infectious diseases or live with it? After reading this book, I was able to understand that we might perhaps learn how to coevolve with infectious diseases because we can never eliminate all. We can treat some with available drugs and prevent some if we are fortunate to have safe and tolerable vaccines.
I understood that in the prehistoric era, mankind, in addition to hunting and gathering activities, engaged in agriculture. They moved and settled in places where conditions were favorable for such activities and their population increased within a shorter time compared to other primates. Some wild animals were domesticated and their feacal matter served as good fertilizers while some became food source for humans. At the time, human hands were used to plow the lands which means that organisms that were either in the soil and faecal matter came into direct contact with humans. At the same time, pathogens that were harbored in wild animals found their new host (humans) as humans lived together with wild animals or huntered for wild animals as food source. Human activities such as agriculture (e.g. cultivation of rice and rubber plantations), deforestation, mining etc. including the transfer of such technologies to other areas paved way for infectious diseases to occur. Transportation of goods and slave trade also led to outbreak of infectious diseases. In the ecosystem, every living organism requires an environment essential for its survival. This creates competition for survival and thus pushes every living organism to create their own ecological niche. Perhaps, infectious pathogens found humans as a suitable ecological niche.
There came a time when humans needed to identify countermeasures against infectious diseases, which led to the discovery of medicines such as quinine for malaria and salvarsan or compound 606 for syphilis and African trypanosomiasis. Several investigations were made into causative agents, infection routes, lifecycles and development of drugs and preventive measures. Till date, people have been recognosized for their efforts in such great strides the form of nobel prizes.
I understood that, there have been situations where outbreaks have occurred and ceased after a short period of time. An example is the sweating sickness which disappeared mysteriously. A disease like o’nyong-nyong fever is also known to have caused two major outbreaks and has since disappeared till date. More recently, we have observed the emergence of new infectious diseases which are mostly viruses like Ebola, SARS, MERS and the current SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). The spread of such diseases is highly related to human lifestyle and our interactions with each other and our environment.
In conclusion, in our (human) quest to eradicate infectious pathogens and diseases we tend to stimulate these pathogens to evolve, or cause other pathgens to emerge. Going forward mankind needs think of ways to coexist with these infectious pathogens.
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