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Playing Hot Potato with Diseases: The Dangers of Spillback


Science journalist Sonia Shah dives into the world of horror that is “reverse zoonosis” in an article she had written for the New York Times. It appears not many people entertain the thought of what happens after we get infected by animals, and we infect them back. Reverse zoonosis, also known as “spillback,” occurs when a nonhuman gets infected with disease by a human. Shah journeys through her discoveries while visiting various mink farms and she elaborates on how these instances of spillback have the potential to cause infectious outbreaks in major ecosystems. She continues her story with concerns regarding the possibility of pathogen evolution affecting the amount of disease variants that can cook up bigger batches of deadly epidemics among humans. Shah mainly sticks with evidence of diseases spreading and she discusses the history of diseases among the mink farms to carry her story.

[1 image, 1 link, 145 words]

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