A leading expert in infection warns that there are many opportunities for infections like SARS to emerge.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) appeared last years from a densely populated areas of Southern China where people and farm animals live closely together. This, explains Dr Richard Lee, professor of medicine and anthropology at the University of Buffalo, allowed the coronavirus to be passed on to humans in a new form.

There are many other places which could similarly act as a Pandora's box, says Dr Lee. Take the fish farming villages of Southeast Asia, where liver fluke infections, Japanese B encephalitis and Nipah virus now threaten residents. There are also many agricultural communities in Africa that share boundaries with wildlife populations - places where Ebola virus and African tick typhus are active

The best way to fight such emerging infections is frequent handwashing. Dr Lee warns against over-use of antiseptics, as these can wipe out 'good' bacteria. And over-use of antibiotics could even create even more deadly strains of viruses by altering balances within microbial communities.

Source

University at Buffalo 21st August 2003