As humans encroach further on the natural world, researchers warn that 75% of novel diseases are transmitted from wildlife
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As the world’s first case of a parasitic roundworm infecting a human’s brain made headlines this week, infectious diseases experts warned the threat of novel infections is rising.
In a case report written about the Australian patient in the journal Emerging Infectious Disease, doctors who pulled the Ophidascaris robertsi larvae from her brain warned the case highlights the danger of diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi passing from wildlife to humans, known as zoonotic infections.
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