Could climate change fuel an epidemic?

Scientists are warning that climate change and deforestation increase the risk of outbreaks of deadly diseases. How big is the danger? And what action can we take?

Dr Neil Vora is a so-called “disease doctor” - an epidemiologist who has travelled the world to help trace the sources of outbreaks of Ebola, cow pox and rabies.

Dr Vora tells The Climate Question hosts Graihagh Jackson and Jordan Dunbar about his specialism in zoonotic diseases, which are caused by infections passing from animals to humans. He is worried that the combination of climate change and cutting down forests will lead to more human-animal contact, and that the higher stress levels experienced by animals such as bats and monkeys will make them more likely to pass on deadly pathogens.

Dr Vora says we need to act now to protect forests and avoid the possibility of epidemics or even a pandemic.

Neil Vora started his career at the US Centres For Diseases Control and Prevention. He is now Executive Director at the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition.

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Producers: Diane Richardson, Jordan Dunbar and Melanie Stewart-Smith
Sound Mix: Dafydd Evans and Tom Brignell
Editor: Simon Watts