Climate change could make Indonesia next hot spot of spillover infections

A trader shows a dead fruit bat on Feb. 12, 2015, before it is prepared as ‘paniki’ (bat meat) for human consumption, at a traditional market in Tomohon, North Sulawesi. - JP

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): On a warming planet, the species-rich ecosystems and large human populations of Indonesia, India and Africa’s Sahel region could turn the regions into hot spots of zoonotic disease as humans come into increasing contact with wildlife, warns an article on increased viral outbreaks published on April 28, 2022 in Nature.

Citing a modelling study by researchers in the United States and South Africa published on the same date in the same journal, the article states: “Over the next 50 years, climate change could drive more than 15,000 new cases of mammals transmitting viruses to other mammals [...] when different species meet for the first time as they move to cooler locales.”