'Like Poking a Beehive': The Worrisome Link Between Deforestation And Disease

'Like Poking a Beehive': The Worrisome Link Between Deforestation And Disease Enlarge this image toggle caption Zoë van Dijk for NPR Zoë van Dijk for NPR In 2013, an 18-month-old boy got sick after playing near a hollow tree in his backyard in a remote West African village. Sponsor Message "When you disturb a forest, it actually upsets, if you want, the balance of nature, the balance between pathogens and people," says John E. Fa, a professor of biodiversity and human development at Manchester Metropolitan University, who was part of a team of researchers that linked recent forest loss to 25 Ebola outbreaks that have occurred since 1976. Sponsor Message "By creating more pathways, you create more edges between human landscapes and forested landscapes," says Laura Bloomfield, a PhD candidate at Stanford University and the study's lead author. That may feel like a far away dilemma for people in more developed countries, but Bloomfield says the coronavirus pandemic has made clear that "human-animal interaction in one place can cause global devastation." Sponsor Message "There's a lot of strain on governments right now, financially and politically," says Amy Vittor, an assistant professor at the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute, who's documented links between deforestation and malaria outbreaks.