Can humankind prevent the next pandemics through the vegetarian nutrition?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/demetra.2021.56051Keywords:
Coronavirus infections. COVID-19. Primary Prevention. Diet, vegetarian.Abstract
The pandemics we are facing may be an apparently new problem for many, but several other public health disasters have already occurred in different parts of the world. Most emerging infectious diseases (60.3%) are caused by zoonotic pathogens through the cross-transmission of species. In the beginning of the zoonotic transmission chain, transmission occurs between different animal species; in the second stage, transmission occurs between animals and humans, until the last stage of the transmission process takes place among humans, leading to worldwide pandemics.1 Surprisingly, taking this fact into account, Benatar et al. recognized, in 2007, that mankind did not consider that changing the way humans treat animals, either by not eating them or at least by radically limiting their consumption could be the best way to prevent an unknown future pandemics.2
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemics has imposed a serious threat to global health that in less than 9 months infected 41.578,922 people and resulted in 1.137,758 deaths.3 These data are underestimated, because 500 to 730 millions of people (6.4% to 9.3% of world population) indeed were infected in the world. Deaths are being undercounted, too.4 It also led to historic breakdown in the world economy. The causative agent is a novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 that has an RNA genome, which is 74.5% to 99% identical to that of SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus), CoV-pangolin, and the coronavirus from horseshoe bat. Recent reports have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 is a modified coronavirus of bat origin, which came to humans because of zoonotic transmission in which the infected pangolin is the intermediary host.5 The consumption of infected animal is the major cause of animal to human transmission of the virus and due to close contact with an infected person; the virus is further transmitted to healthy individuals.6
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