Indigenous Peoples at centre of fight against pandemics
Of the many issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the most unsettling is that it is likely to be only a beginning — that the world is threatened with future plagues brought on by factors such as environmental degradation and human encroachment on animal habitats.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 60% of human diseases already originate from animals. As urban areas spread across the world, and forests are chopped down, zoonosis — the jump of pathogens such as viruses from animal to human — becomes more likely and common.