Outbreaks of endemic diseases such as smallpox and lassa fever are becoming more persistent and frequent, World Health Organization Emergency Director Mike Ryan warned on Wednesday.
As climate change contributes to rapidly changing weather conditions such as drought, animals and humans are changing their food-seeking behavior. As a result, diseases that normally circulate in animals are increasingly jumping on humans, he said.
“Unfortunately, this ability to amplify this disease and spread it within our communities is increasing, so that both the onset of the disease and the factors that amplify the disease have increased.”
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