‘Preventing the next pandemic’ – A 2020 UNEP Frontiers Series Report on zoonotic diseases with reflections for South Africa

Abstract

Zoonoses account for about 25% of the infectious disease burden in low-income countries. Poverty might increase the risk for zoonotic disease where the active human–livestock and human–wildlife interfaces can increase the likelihood of disease transmission. A combined disease burden exists for people in areas such as tropical and subtropical Africa, where there is likelihood of co-infection with zoonotic diseases and other pathogenic or infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.1 Many endemic zoonoses remain widely neglected in such settings, undetected and underreported, because their impacts are borne largely by impoverished and marginalised communities. Due to these unique contexts, the prevention and management of emerging and endemic zoonotic diseases in many African countries is a complex undertaking needing evidence-based guidance. In early 2020, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) took on the urgent task to provide an up-to-date, rapid scientific assessment on zoonotic diseases as part of the UNEP’s Frontiers Report Series. The goal of the report is to provide relevant information for policymakers on how to ‘prevent the next pandemic’ by interrogating what is known about zoonotic diseases and how best one can break the chain of transmission. As the world presently faces the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this timely report helps decisionmakers with evidence-based actions, not only to flatten the curve of COVID-19 incidence, but to answer questions about zoonoses in general and plan for the future. In this Commentary, we give a brief overview of UNEP’s latest report and then relate some of the key messages and recommendations for policymakers to a South African context.