D. K. Bonilla-Aldana, Yeimer Holguin-Rivera, Soffia Pérez-Vargas, Adrián E. Trejos-Mendoza, G. J. Balbin-Ramon, K. Dhama, P. Barato, Charlene Luján-Vega, A. Rodríguez-Morales
One Health, 2020
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is continuing and is currently raging in Latin America [1–4]. In this region (including the Caribbean), up to July 3, 2020, 2,746,277 cases have been reported, more than 2,358,756 of them in South America, and 1,496,858 just in Brazil [5,6]. This, the largest country in the region, have reported 61,884 deaths (4.13%). Mexico, the second largest country, has a higher proportion of deaths, 29,189 out of 238,511 (12.23%). On the other side, Chile, although have reported 288,089 cases, only 6,051 deaths have registered (2.1%) [5,6]. In the case of Venezuela, this a country where doubts about the numbers have been raised. Up to July 3, 2020, 6,273 cases have been reported, but, this number could be underestimated because of under-testing and underreporting [7]. In the region, there have been clear differences in the responses to the disease, with countries such as Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, among others following wide recommendations of quarantine, physical distance and biosecurity education in an early stage of the pandemic, whilst in others such as Brazil or Mexico, this has been delayed, with very well-known consequences. In Brazil, the poorly-urbanized neighborhoods on the margins of city centers, the so called favelas, are focal points for the disease, with precarious living conditions and high population density making social distancing a nearimpossibility [8]. The coronaviruses (CoVs) are pathogens that can be transmitted between and infecting in both humans and animals. These have a worldwide distribution [9–13]. Due to the importance of the SARS-CoV2 outbreak that started in Wuhan, province of Hubei, China, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared this viral infection as a health emergency of international concern and later as a pandemic [14–20]. Taxonomically, this virus is an enveloped single-stranded RNA virus, which belongs to the subgenus Sarbecovirus, part of the genus Betacoronavirus (order Nidovirales; suborder Cornidovirineae; family Coronaviridae; subfamily Coronavirinae). In the subgenus Sarbecovirus, is also included the SARS-CoV, the etiological agent of the 2002–2003 epidemic originated in Guandong, China [21–23]. For One Health, viruses among the Coronaviridae family are archetypal [24]. The virus shares a high level of identity with some bat coronaviruses and is recognized as a zoonotic virus [24,25]. The virological and epidemiological scenario of this pandemic is complex, and still, many questions remain unanswered. Animal infection due to zoonotic coronaviruses has been previously reported on a farm and domestic animals such as cattle, pigs, dogs, among others [26]. This probably have been occurring for years, and not only in animals but in asymptomatic humans. Nevertheless, the first significant and apparent report in humans was described in 2002 in Guangzhou, province of Guangdong, China, where more than eight thousand cases were confirmed due to a new virus, causing 774 deaths in 32 countries around the world [27]. That virus was the SARS-CoV [27–31]. Later in 2012, another outbreak of a zoonotic coronavirus was reported. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), originated in Saudi Arabia, also spread to other Asian, African, European, and American countries, also causing deaths [11,32–34]. In the case of the SARS-CoV, it was shown that the outbreak originated due to the transmission of the Himalayan civet (Paguma larvata) [30]. However, it was also reported that animal species such as raccoons and bats could carry the virus [30]. In the case of MERS-CoV, after identifying the virus, the epidemiological relationship between human and camel cases was confirmed [34–36]. Both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV have caused more than 10,000 cumulative cases in the past two decades, with case fatality rates of 10% and 37%, respectively [34–36]. The identified coronaviruses were the tip of the iceberg. More of them would emerge and become apparent as already occurred with the current pandemic SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 [11,12,23]. In this scenario of interaction between animal and human health, also the environmental health, then, the concept of One Health, is again of utmost importance. One Health is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment (Fig. 1). Currently at homes, zoological parks and farms, there have been reports of infections from humans to animals. At homes, cats and dogs; at zoological parks, tigers and lions; and at farms, minks (Fig. 1) [37–40]. At the integrative disease ecology study of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19,
Cited by 14 publications.
Field of study: Biology