News Headline
Spillover: encroachment into forests increases risk of contracting diseases from animals
Source
Mongabay (India)
Publication Date
2020-02-17
Over the past two decades, scientists have been alarmed by the rapid spread of an infectious disease transmitted by tick bites that afflict forest-dwellers in the verdant, biodiverse tropical forests of the Western Ghats running parallel to India’s west coast. Caused by a virus, Kyasanur Forest Disease, or ‘monkey fever’ as it is also known because it infects and sometimes kills monkeys too, sickens about 400 people in the region each year, although cases vary each year widely.