A VERITABLE zoo of nasty new viruses is circulating in Europe and could be killing people without even being suspected. In a study commissioned by the British government on the risk of insect-borne and other arthropod-borne viruses emerging in the UK, Ernie Gould of the University of Oxford warns that these diseases may be going unrecognised simply because no one is looking for them.
That should change following the launch of a second report on 26 April, which details what diseases may emerge over the next 25 years. 鈥淣o one knows what major diseases may arise,鈥� says the UK鈥檚 chief scientific adviser David King, 鈥渂ut improved detection, identification and monitoring will be critical in catching them earlier than we do now.鈥�
鈥淒iseases may be going unrecognised simply because no one is looking for them鈥�
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West Nile virus is already present in birds across Europe, and Gould reports that Tahyna virus, which like West Nile can cause encephalitis in humans, is also common across the continent in mosquitoes, rabbits and birds.
Such diseases may already be infecting and killing people. About 50 people a year die from viral encephalitis in the UK, yet fewer than 40 per cent of these deaths are ever pinned on a specific pathogen, says Gould, and the figures are similar in other developed countries.
鈥淲ildlife is a huge reservoir of potential pathogens, but at the moment we do very little in the way of surveillance,鈥� says Joe Brownlie of the Royal Veterinary College, London. 鈥淲e ought to be testing more animals and birds.鈥�
